Nest site limitation and facultative polygyny in the ant Leptothorax longispinosus

Herbers, Joan M.

doi:10.1007/bf00299946

Cited by 190 publications

(171 citation statements)

References 48 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

164

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…R. Soc. B 281: 20140225 substantial costs as nest sites are known to be limiting for T. longispinosus [29]. Colonies that can successfully evade parasitation through collective slavemaker immobilization should thus not abandon their nest site, which is indeed what we found.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 74%

Collective defence portfolios of ant hosts shift with social parasite pressure

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Host defences become increasingly costly as parasites breach successive lines of defence. Because selection favours hosts that successfully resist parasitism at the lowest possible cost, escalating coevolutionary arms races are likely to drive host defence portfolios towards ever more expensive strategies. We investigated the interplay between host defence portfolios and social parasite pressure by comparing 17 populations of two Temnothorax ant species. When successful, collective aggression not only prevents parasitation but also spares host colonies the cost of searching for and moving to a new nest site. However, once parasites breach the host's nest defence, host colonies should resort to flight as the more beneficial resistance strategy. We show that under low parasite pressure, host colonies more likely responded to an intruding Protomognathus americanus slavemaker with collective aggression, which prevented the slavemaker from escaping and potentially recruiting nest-mates. However, as parasite pressure increased, ant colonies of both host species became more likely to flee rather than to fight. We conclude that host defence portfolios shift consistently with social parasite pressure, which is in accordance with the degeneration of frontline defences and the evolution of subsequent anti-parasite strategies often invoked in hosts of brood parasites.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 74%

Collective defence portfolios of ant hosts shift with social parasite pressure

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…obs.). These behavioral observations accord well with inferences made about population structure that are based on spatial distributions of nests and queen distribution among nests (Herbers 1986a). If the cyclic polydomy hypothesis is correct, then the nests used in this study, which had been collected in late fall, had already undergone colony coalition for overwintering.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 82%

“…The fluid nature of this L. longispinosus population is quite evident, and can help to explain summerwinter differences in queen and worker distribution (Herbers 1986a). The causes of cyclic polydomy are obscure at present.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…Moreover, there was a strong winter-summer dichotomy in queen distribution. Many nests in summer are queenless, whereas in winter such groups are rare (Herbers 1986a); similarly, the average number of queens per nest is lower in summer. Finally, nests are considerably more spread out in summer than in winter (Herbers 1985).…”

mentioning

confidence: 96%

“…These results are best explained as correlates of a seasonal shift in spatial structure: colony fractionation in summer and condensation for overwintering. It appears that, for the most part, overwintering nests are independent colonies that become polydomous in summer when they fractionate to occupy several nest sites (Herbers 1986a three times weekly. Detailed observations of behavior were taken for the first 3 weeks (2 hours of continuous observation daily from 9:00-11:00 as well as periodic checks), after which the intensity of observation was reduced to 2 hours per week.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations