Resource discovery in ant communities: do food type and quantity matter?

Pearce-Duvet, Jessica; Feener, Donald H.

doi:10.1111/j.1365-2311.2010.01214.x

Cited by 25 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 78 publications

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“…Social insects fight against competitors for territory, nest sites and resources (Hölldobler & Willson 1990, ch. 10; Dornhaus & Powell 2010), and the tendency to fight against competitors varies between species according to their behavioral dominance (e.g., Pearce‐Duvet & Feener 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differential Response of Ant Colonies to Intruders: Attack Strategies Correlate With Potential Threat

Scharf¹,

Pamminger²,

Foitzik³

2011

Ethology

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Animals are often threatened by predators, parasites, or competitors, and attacks against these enemies are a common response, which can help to remove the danger. The costs of defense are complex and involve the risk of injury, the loss of energy/time, and the erroneous identification of a friend as a foe. Our goal was to study the specificity of defense strategies. We analyzed the aggressive responses of ant colonies by confronting them with workers of an unfamiliar congeneric species, a non‐nestmate conspecific, a co‐occurring congeneric competitor species, and a social parasite—a slave‐making ant. As expected, the latter species, which can inflict dramatic fitness losses to the colony, was treated with most aggression. A co‐occurring competitor was also attacked, but the ants used different behaviors in their responses to both enemies. While the slavemaker was attacked by biting and stinging and was approached with spread mandibles, the competitor was dragged, a behavioral strategy only possible if the defending ant is similar in size and strength to the opponent. Non‐nestmate conspecifics were treated aggressively as well, but less than the slavemaker and the co‐occurring competitor, presumably because they are less easily recognized as enemies. An unfamiliar congeneric species was rarely attacked. This first detailed study comparing the aggressive responses of ant colonies toward slave‐making ants to other species posing different threats indicates that the responses of ant colonies are adjusted to the risk each opponent poses to the colony.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differential Response of Ant Colonies to Intruders: Attack Strategies Correlate With Potential Threat

Scharf¹,

Pamminger²,

Foitzik³

2011

Ethology

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“…The nutritional needs of each colony at the time of the experiment can explain the absence of relationship in the size and speed recruitment in Mirmicinae species (Davidson et al 2003). The bait offered to ant workers in the experiment was a protein based resource, but the colony food requirements consist of many other resources (Cook et al 2010, Pearce-Duvet & Feener Junior 2010. The type of food bait can also be detected by the ants before they find it, allowing them to speed up to capture the most needed resource (Pearce-Duvet & Feener Junior 2010).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The bait offered to ant workers in the experiment was a protein based resource, but the colony food requirements consist of many other resources (Cook et al 2010, Pearce-Duvet & Feener Junior 2010. The type of food bait can also be detected by the ants before they find it, allowing them to speed up to capture the most needed resource (Pearce-Duvet & Feener Junior 2010). Thus, the speed of recruitment may be a response of a specific resource type and the momentary necessity of the colony.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Due to restrictions on dominating and carrying resources, small ants should recruit other ants to ensure their domination after encountering a resource, avoiding the loss of that resource to a larger ant, or other animals (Pearce- Duvet & Feener Junior et al 2010). Additionally, the recruitment speed is directly related to the amount of resources that an ant can carry.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Does body size of neotropical ant species influence their recruitment speed?

Godoy

Camargos

2013

Biota Neotrop.

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Ants are one of the most important animal groups in tropical forests because of its abundance and number of species. An important characteristic of the group is the eusociality, which allows the occurrence of a recruitment behavior when food resource is found. However, there are two main questions regarding this behavior: (i) the recruitment is a product of environmental or phylogenetic pressures, and (ii) the recruitment speed is related to the body size of the ant species. In this work we addressed these two questions using 17 species of neotropical ants, in the Amazonic lowland dense rain forest. According to results, recruitment behavior is related to ant size, where smaller species exhibit this trait when finding a protein resource. However, species size is not important in recruitment speed, which suggests that speed can be best explained by the type of food resources needed in the ant colony. Resumo: Formigas são um dos mais importantes grupos animais nas florestas tropicais devido a sua abundância e seu número de espécies. Uma característica importante do grupo é a eusocialidade, que permite a ocorrência do comportamento de recrutamento quando um recurso alimentar é encontrado. Entretanto, existem duas questões principais acerca desse comportamento: (i) o recrutamento é um produto de pressões ambientais ou filogenéticas, e (ii) a velocidade de recrutamento é relacionada ao tamanho corpóreo das espécies de formigas. Neste trabalho nós analisamos essas duas questões em 17 espécies de formigas neotropicais, na floresta Amazônica densa de terras baixas. De acordo com os resultados, o recrutamento é fortemente relacionado com o tamanho da formiga, sendo que espécies menores exibem essa característica quando encontram uma fonte protéica. Entretanto, o tamanho das espécies não é importante na velocidade de recrutamento, o que sugere que a velocidade de recrutamento pode ser melhor explicado pelo tipo de recursos alimentares necessários à colônia. Palavras-chave: formicidae, comportamento de forrageio, contrastes filogenéticos, insetos sociais, Amazônia.

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“…resources, small ants should recruit other ants to ensure their domination after encountering a resource, avoiding the loss of that resource to a larger ant, or other animals (Pearce-Duvet & Feener Junior, 2010). Additionally, the recruitment speed is directly related to the amount of resources that an ant can carry.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of Insects that Exploit Temporary Protein Resources Emphasizing the Action of Ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) in a Neotropical Semi-deciduous Forest

Santos-Junior¹,

Saraiva²,

Silvestre³

et al. 2014

Sociobiology

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The majority of the ants is opportunistic and generalist foragers, commonly feeding on vegetable secretions, seeds, and living or dead animal material. They may be present on any type of substrate even, occasionally on carcasses. This work, then, aimed to evaluate the action of insects, especially ants, in the exploitation of protein resources in forest environment. Monthly collections were made over a year and, in each collection, were made observations during 12 consecutive hours. To simulate exposure of protein resources we used three types of baits, sardines, beef liver and chicken. To evaluate the importance of ants on protein resources for each type of bait there was a control replica with physical barrier to prevent their access. The ants were observed on all baits throughout the collection period. In total, the baits were visited by 34 species of ants. The main genus of ants to visit the baits were: Pheidole, Crematogaster and Solenopsis. These results demonstrate that the presence of ants is important to ecological succession on temporary protein sources in forest environments interfering in the occurrence of other frequent groups in this type of resource, such as flies, for instance. The species that dominated the baits, when presents, were those that regardless of size and aggressiveness, presented mass recruitment and exploited the baits with large flow of individuals Although some species that exhibit certain characteristics can locate the baits faster and eventually dominate them at some point, depending on the ants species that co-occur, the results for the sequence of colonization can be modified.

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Resource discovery in ant communities: do food type and quantity matter?

Cited by 25 publications

References 78 publications

Differential Response of Ant Colonies to Intruders: Attack Strategies Correlate With Potential Threat

Differential Response of Ant Colonies to Intruders: Attack Strategies Correlate With Potential Threat

Does body size of neotropical ant species influence their recruitment speed?

Evaluation of Insects that Exploit Temporary Protein Resources Emphasizing the Action of Ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) in a Neotropical Semi-deciduous Forest

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