How memory and motivation modulate the responses to trail pheromones in three ant species

Thienen, Wolfhard von; Metzler, Dirk; Witte, Volker

doi:10.1007/s00265-016-2059-5

Cited by 21 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 38 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…However, in colonies with low resource density (0 and 0.32 baits m −2 ), the proportion of established trails converted into galleries was less than in those with high resource density (1.92 baits m −2 ) (Fig. In fact, starvation has been considered as a stimulus to ants to follow a pheromone trail which leads to the discovery of food, to start the exploration of new food sources (von Thienen & Metzler, 2016) and to increase recruits (Mailleux et al, 2010). These results indicate that termite colonies with low resource density increase their search efforts during foraging, as expected when the chance of resource encounter is low.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…intermediate density), termite hunger can serve as a stimulus to increase the gallery construction speed. In fact, starvation has been considered as a stimulus to ants to follow a pheromone trail which leads to the discovery of food, to start the exploration of new food sources (von Thienen & Metzler, 2016) and to increase recruits (Mailleux et al, 2010). However, when resources are limited or absent (low stimulus), termite colonies converted trails into galleries at a slow rate.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Resource density regulates the foraging investment in higher termite species

Almeida

Cristaldo

DeSouza

et al. 2018

Ecological Entomology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

1. Resource density can regulate the area that animals use. At low resource density, there is a conflict in terms of balance between costs of foraging and benefits acquired. The foraging of the higher termite Nasutitermes aff. coxipoensis consists of searching throughout trails and a building galleries phase.2. In this study, a manipulative field experiment was used to test the hypothesis that colonies of N. aff. coxipoensis forage towards a more profitable balance between the establishment of trails and gallery construction at low resource density.3. The experiment was conducted in north-eastern Brazil. Seven experimental plots were established with a continuous increase in resource density (sugarcane baits). Entire colonies of N. aff. coxipoensis were transplanted from their original sites to the experimental plot, totalling 35 nests. The number, branches and total length of trails and galleries were quantified.4. The results show that N. aff. coxipoensis optimises its foraging output, intensifying the establishment of trails at the cost of gallery construction when resource density is low. The number of trails, the number of trail branches and the total length of trails decreased with increasing resource density. Interestingly, at low resource density, the search effort was concentrated on forming longer and a greater number of trails, a small proportion of which were converted into galleries. The opposite relationship was observed at high resource density. 5. These results suggest an optimisation of search efforts during foraging depending on resource density, a mechanism that may help researchers to understand the use of space by higher termite species.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resource density regulates the foraging investment in higher termite species

Almeida

Cristaldo

DeSouza

et al. 2018

Ecological Entomology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For example, ants which have private information about a food source (memory) which agrees with social information (a pheromone trail leading in the same direction) walk 25% faster than ants with either only one or none of these information sources [6]. These information sources also act additively by causing more ants to follow a pheromone trail [7]. Bumblebees which have experienced a novel flower odour in the nest (public information) are more likely to exploit the novel flowers, but only once they have tasted a flower scented with this novel odour (private information) [8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A particularly interesting situation is when information sources conflict. One option in such situations is to weight information from different sources and produce an intermediate value [7,9,10]. An alternative is to rely on one type of information and ignore the others.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Information synergy: adding unambiguous quality information rescues social information use in ants

Czaczkes

Beckwith

2018

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Animals have access to many alternative information sources when making decisions, such as private information (e.g. memory) and social information. Social insects make extensive use of social information. However, when intentional social information (e.g. pheromone trails in ants) conflicts with private information (e.g. route memories), insects often follow their private information. Why is this? We propose that an asymmetry in the type of information provided by these two information sources drives the neglect of social information: In ants, workers with certain information about the quality of a food source (memory) ignore valuable social information (pheromone trails) because the pheromone trails encode only a very ambiguous measure of food quality. This leads to a testable hypothesis: the addition of unambiguous quality information should rescue social information following. To test this, we trained ants to a poor quality (0.25M sucrose) food source, and then provided an alternative path along with either 1) no information, 2) a pheromone trail, 3) a 0.2μl 1.5M sucrose droplet, providing unambiguous quality information, or 4) both a trail and a droplet. When either no or only one information source was provided (1-3), most ants (60-75%) continued following their own memory. However, the addition of unambiguous quality information (4) rescued trail following: when both a trail and a droplet were provided, 75% of ants followed the trail. In further experiments, we show that quality information gleaned from direct contact with fed nestmates produced similar effects. Using florescence microscopy, we demonstrate that food (and information) flows from fed workers to outgoing foragers, explaining the frequent contacts on trails. We propose that the type of information an information source can convey, and its ambiguity, is a strong driver of which source of information is attended to.

show abstract

“…Matters are complicated when conflicts arise between information sources. When this occurs, one option is to produce and follow a weighted intermediate value [10–12]. However, sometimes an intermediate response is not possible, for example when deciding between two feeding locations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Copy when uncertain: Lower light levels result in higher trail pheromone deposition and stronger reliance on pheromone trails in the ant Lasius niger

Jones

Czaczkes

Gallager

et al. 2018

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Animals may gather information from multiple sources, and these information sources may conflict. Theory predicts that, all else being equal, reliance on a particular information source will depend on its information content relative to other sources. Information conflicts are a good area in which to test such predictions. Social insects, such as ants, make extensive use of both private information (e.g. visual route memories) and social information (e.g. pheromone trails) when attempting to locate a food source. Importantly, eusocial insects collaborate on food retrieval, so both information use and information provision may be expected to vary with the information content of alternative information sources. Many ants, such as Lasius niger, are active both day and night. Variation in light levels represents an ecologically important change in the information content of visually-acquired route information. Here, we examine information use and information provision under high light levels (3200 lux), moderate light levels simulating dusk (10 lux) and darkness (0.007 lux). Ants fail to learn the location of a food source in darkness. As light levels decrease, ants show decreasing reliance on private visual information, and increasing pheromone trail following, consistent with a ‘copy when uncertain’ strategy. In moderate light levels and darkness, pheromone deposition increases, presumably to compensate for the low information content of visual information. Varying light levels for cathemeral animals provides a powerful and ecologically meaningful method for examining information use and provision under varying levels of information content.

show abstract

How memory and motivation modulate the responses to trail pheromones in three ant species

Cited by 21 publications

References 38 publications

Resource density regulates the foraging investment in higher termite species

Resource density regulates the foraging investment in higher termite species

Information synergy: adding unambiguous quality information rescues social information use in ants

Copy when uncertain: Lower light levels result in higher trail pheromone deposition and stronger reliance on pheromone trails in the ant Lasius niger

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About