Optimal patch use by foraging workers of Lasius fuliginosus, L. niger and Myrmica ruginodis

Bonser, Rob; Wright, P. J.; Bament, Simon; Chukwu, Uchegbu O.

doi:10.1046/j.1365-2311.1998.00103.x

Cited by 65 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…A scout needs to drink up to its critical volume of food before returning to the nest. However, as expected from studies on the control of meal size in non-social insects (Bernays and Simpson, 1982;Simpson and Raubenheimer, 1995), other work in ants has shown that this critical volume is influenced by the concentration of sugar solution (Bonser et al, 1998;Josens et al, 1998), viscosity (Josens et al, 1998), distance (Bonser et al, 1998) of the food from the nest, and starvation level (Josens and Roces, 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 71%

Carbohydrate regulation in relation to colony growth in ants

Dussutour

Simpson

2008

Journal of Experimental Biology

105

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SUMMARYAnts and all social insects are faced with a nutritional challenge: the food entering the colony is brought by only a small number of its workers but is shared among all members of the colony. In this study, we investigated how ants maintain carbohydrates supply at both a collective and an individual level in response to changes in the concentration of available sucrose solution, colony demography and larval growth. We manipulated the concentration of sugar solutions available to ant colonies (dilute, medium and concentrated solutions) over extended periods and measured the capacity of colonies to maintain sugar supply through compensatory feeding. First, we demonstrated that ants regulated carbohydrate intake at a collective and individual level. Initially, ants consumed most and recruited fastest in response to more concentrated than to dilute sugar solutions, but over time this pattern reversed, such that the number of ants that fed and the volume ingested by each ant was a negative function of sugar concentration in the diet. Second, we found that ants became better at regulating their carbohydrate intake with the production of larvae in the nest. When the number of larvae was experimentally doubled, the ants regulated their consumption of carbohydrates more accurately than when the number of adult workers was doubled, suggesting that larvae play an important role in providing nutritional feedback to workers. Finally, we showed that ants defended a carbohydrate 'intake target' by allowing them to select among sugar solutions of different concentration.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 71%

Carbohydrate regulation in relation to colony growth in ants

Dussutour

Simpson

2008

Journal of Experimental Biology

105

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“…Ants in return defend the aphids from natural enemies. In general, the intensity of ant-aphid mutualism is positively correlated with honeydew quantity and quality as well as the sugar demand of the ants (Bristow, 1984;Bonser et al, 1998;. Honeydew is an aqueous solution consisting mainly of various sugars and amino acids (Auclair, 1963;Maurizio, 1985).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Honeydew production and honeydew sugar composition of polyphagous black bean aphid, Aphis fabae (Hemiptera: Aphididae) on various host plants and implications for ant-attendance

Fischer¹,

Völkl²,

Hoffmann³

2005

Eur. J. Entomol.

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Abstract. The black bean aphid, Aphis fabae, is polyphagous and its life cycle involves seasonal migration between summer and winter host plants. The aphids are regularly tended by honeydew-collecting ants. This study investigates whether differences exist in honeydew production and honeydew sugar composition for A. fabae subspecies feeding on various host plants and whether such differences reflect differences in the intensity of ant-atttendance ( Lasius niger).A. f. fabae feeding on the perennial summer host, Tanacetum vulgare, produced twice the amount of honeydew (ca. 110 µg per aphid . h -1

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“…These social insects adjust their individual and collective response to these liquid food sources which differ in their chemical composition (Sudd & Sudd 1985;Breed et al 1987Breed et al , 1996ade Biseau et al 1992;Beckers et al 1993;de Biseau & Pasteels 1994;Bonser et al 1998;Völkl et al 1999) or their spatial distribution (Addicott 1979;Breed et al 1987;Itioka & Tamiji 1996).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regulation of ants' foraging to resource productivity

Mailleux

Deneubourg

Detrain

2003

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

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We investigate the behavioural rule used by ant societies to adjust their foraging response to the honeydew productivity of aphids. When a scout finds a single food source, the decision to lay a recruitment trail is an all-or-none response based on the opportunity for this scout to ingest a desired volume acting as a threshold. Here, we demonstrate, through experimental and theoretical approaches, the generic value of this recruitment rule that remains valid when ants have to forage on multiple small sugar feeders to reach their desired volume. Moreover, our experiments show that when ants decide to recruit nest-mates they lay trail marks of equal intensity, whatever the number of food sources visited. A model based on the 'desired volume' rule of recruitment as well as on experimentally validated parameter values was built to investigate how ant societies adjust their foraging response to the honeydew productivity profile of aphids. Simulations predict that, with such recruiting rules, the percentage of recruiting ants is directly related to the total production of honeydew. Moreover, an optimal number of foragers exists that maximizes the strength of recruitment, this number being linearly related to the total production of honeydew by the aphid colony. The 'desired volume' recruitment rule that should be generic for all ant species is enough to explain how ants optimize trail recruitment and select aphid colonies or other liquid food resources according to their productivity profile.

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Optimal patch use by foraging workers of Lasius fuliginosus, L. niger and Myrmica ruginodis

Cited by 65 publications

References 26 publications

Carbohydrate regulation in relation to colony growth in ants

Carbohydrate regulation in relation to colony growth in ants

Honeydew production and honeydew sugar composition of polyphagous black bean aphid, Aphis fabae (Hemiptera: Aphididae) on various host plants and implications for ant-attendance

Regulation of ants' foraging to resource productivity

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