**The abscence of two data sets from the shade environment was due to no ants falling into those traps.
 

     For the pitfall traps, we did tally the number of individual specimens captured for each trap set.  We observed two different morphs in forest habitat traps while only one in the sunny open field traps.  We believe that the two morphs may be different castes of the same species, S. invicta.  We compared the number of specimens (both morphs) from the sunny and forested habitat pitfall traps using the Chi Squared statistical technique.  We hypothesized that the fire ants would be equally distributed in the sunny and forested habitats: The number of ants captured in the sunny habitat would equal the number of ants captured in the forested habitat.  The difference between the two habitats was 1064.  We rejected the hypothesis in favor of an alternative hypothesis, which is that more fire ants are located in the sunny habitat than the forest habitat.

    Our observations coincide with what we expected to find.  S. invicta is a well studied species of ant because of the vast impact it is having as an exotic urban and agricultural pest.  Its high density in the United States is believed to be a result of biological release from their natural enemies which are present in their native S. America (Briano et. al., 1998).  The fire ant, or imported fire ant as it is commonly referred to as, usually nests in the soil of open areas, pastures and agronomic fields, but are also found occasionally in wooded areas (NBII, 1998).  Since fire ants most commonly nest in the sunny habitat, we believe that this is the reason we observed significantly more fire ants in our pitfall traps.  A study done by Phillips et. al. (Phillips et. al., 1996) found that fire ants are rapidly expanding their range throughout Texas into what was once thought of as inhospitable areas.  They found that some colonies of the fire ants, which had moved into these new areas, showed significant differences in desiccation tolerance.  This indicates that the fire ants may be able to adapt and expand their range at a faster rate than once thought.  It also indicates the fire ants ability to survive in the sunny habitats, where they are more prone to desiccation.  If the fire ants nest in the sunny habitat, we believe that they may do more foraging in the sunny habitat, which will ultimately lead to the capture of more fire ants in the sunny habitat pitfall traps.

    We also believe that we incurred a sampling error, which lead to an increase in the number of ants captured in the forested habitat pitfall traps.  When we set up our traps in the forested habitat, we don't feel that we penetrated the forest far enough to obtain a representative sample.  Where we entered the forest, there were nest lining the edge of the forest, which placed the ant's nest in close proximity to the pitfall traps.  It is thought that if we had gone further into the forest, we would have observed fewer numbers of ants captured, and a more representative sample of actual ants foraging through the forested habitat.

    As to why only fire ants were captured as opposed to other species of ants, it is hypothesized that since S. invicta is an exotic species, it is void of any local North American enemies (Briano et. al., 1998).  Based on the ideas presented in the competitive exclusion principle proposed by Gause, this void of enemies will allow S. invicta to indirectly outcompete other ant species in any given niche and will lead to higher densities of this species.

    Although we did not tally the number of specimens captured in the bait traps, one could tell by simply looking at them that the bait traps caught a much higher number of ants as opposed to the pitfall traps, for both the sunny and forested habitats.  It is known that when foraging worker ants find food, they lay down a pheromone trail from the food to the nest.  Once at the nest, other worker ants can follow the pheromone trail to the food (Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service, 1997).  This chemical signal will greatly increase the number of ants found at the bait traps and is probably responsible for the greater number of specimens captured, as opposed to the pitfall traps which are assumed to be based on foraging density alone.

References
    Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service. September, 1997. Arkansas Demonstrations to Manage Populations of Red Imported Fire Ants.

    Briano, A. J., Calcaterra, L. A. and Williams, D. F. 1998. Field studies of the parasitic ant Solenopsis daguerrei (Hymenoptera: formicidae), on fire ants in Argentina. Agricultural Research Services. United States Department of Agriculture.

    National Biological Information Infrastructure. July, 1998. Invasive species: Fire Ant (Solenopsis invicta).

    Phillips, S. A., Atresino, J. R. and Thorvilson, H. G. 1996. Desiccation resistance in populations of the red imported fire ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Environmental Entomology 25: 460-464.