PrepTest 127, Section 3, Question 13
Tent caterpillars' routes between their nests and potential(76 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(9 more words not shown)
- AA hungry tent(13 more words not shown)
- BTent caterpillars can(9 more words not shown)
- CSometimes individual tent(13 more words not shown)
- DThe pheromones left(12 more words not shown)
- EThe pheromones that(12 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
These caterpillars leave chemical trails between the nest and places where they might find food. A trail could help a caterpillar return home or find its way back to a good food source. It might also be a byproduct of moving around rather than something produced for that purpose.
The heavier marking on successful routes is interesting. Perhaps the caterpillar is signaling where food can be found. Or perhaps eating simply causes it to produce more pheromones. We don't yet know how the heavier trail functions.
The conclusion adds another idea: communal foraging. Under the definition given, information about food reaches other members of the colony, nest, or hive. What if the trail only helps the caterpillar that left it? We haven't been told how other caterpillars are involved. If they lived alone or used their markings only to retrace their own routes, the behavior would not establish the information sharing described.
What we’re looking for
To strengthen this, my first thought is to show that the caterpillars live together and that the trails help other members find food. I would want something addressing that communal use, rather than just another fact about how the chemical marks are made.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
This adds a useful behavioral connection: hungry caterpillars favor the routes that carry the heavier food-related markings. The difference in the trails can therefore guide a caterpillar toward a food source, which supports the idea that the marks convey food information.
This isn't the direct statement about living together that I expected. Nor does it prove every part of communal foraging by itself. But it helps explain how a trail left after one caterpillar finds food could guide another hungry caterpillar. That supports the proposed information-sharing function.
- B
If caterpillars cannot detect concentration, the heavier marking cannot guide them in the way the argument suggests. They might detect that some trail exists without being able to tell a food route from a lightly marked exploratory route. This undermines the proposed significance of the heavier markings.
- C
Remaining away until food is found describes an individual caterpillar's persistence. It tells us nothing about whether another caterpillar receives information from its route. Finding food and sharing information about food are separate parts of the proposed behavior.
- D
Different species can leave different chemicals without those chemicals serving to communicate food locations within a group. The issue is what tent caterpillars do with their trails, not whether the chemical is unique compared with another animal's.
- E
Other species detecting these pheromones would not establish information transfer to members of the tent caterpillar's own colony, nest, or hive. Detection alone also doesn't tell us whether an animal uses the marks to find food. A supplies that food-seeking behavior for tent caterpillars themselves.
More Strengthen questions
Learn the LSAT our way
Our platform drills Strengthen questions at your level and adjusts as you improve.