The other night, I found some ants crawling around. I crushed a few of them, and they gave off a strong smell, like licorace. Is that formic acid? Just then, my cat came along and went crazy over the ants, started licking them up from the table and rolling in them. He even tried to nibble my fingers, it was even stronger than his reaction to catnip. Has anyone heard of this?
Edit: found this:
Edit: found this:
This paper "Dietary fats and body lipid composition in relation to hibernation in free-ranging echidnas" by Falkenstein et al. has, I think, solved an old puzzle for me. Years ago I noticed that our housecats were very excited and pleased by the scent of crushed meat ants (Iridomyrmex) on my boots. I assumed that there was something in the ants' bodies that "turned on" cats, and I actually did some experiments with formic acid, without success. I found the Falkenstein paper recently, which mentions the abundance of oleic acid in meat ant bodies. I also found out very recently that oleic acid is one of the important constituents of the pheromone that cats wipe on objects with their chins. It is possible to buy a synthetic mixture of fatty acids - including mostly oleic acid - which can be sprayed around a home to comfort cats and improve their behaviour in various ways. So - I now surmise that what my cats were reacting to so delightedly was the oleic acid released by the crushed meat ants.
