Which tools to use? Choice optimization in the tool-using ant, Aphaenogaster subterranea

Lőrinczi, Gábor; Módra, Gábor; Juhász, Orsolya; Maák, István

doi:10.1093/beheco/ary110

Cited by 11 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Despite that two types of liquids were available for the ants at the same time, significantly more tools were dropped into honey‐water than into water. Our results are corroborated by other studies (Banschbach et al., 2006; Lőrinczi, 2014; Lőrinczi et al., 2018; Maák et al., 2017; McDonald, 1984), which also showed that the debris dropping behavior is selective when it comes to nonfood liquids such as water or petroleum jelly. If foraging workers had indeed considered liquids as a possible threat and they had dropped tools to avoid drowning or entanglement, we would have expected a similar amount of tools dropped into both liquids.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…These were mixed in equal volume, and a mixture of ca. 7 cm 3 was piled up 4 cm from the liquids to avoid the effect of distance during the object selection of ants (see Lőrinczi et al., 2018). In all 3 trials of Exp.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other studies also show that the debris dropping behavior is selective when it comes to nonfood liquids. It occurs in a sporadic manner in some cases (Lőrinczi, 2014; Lőrinczi et al., 2018; Maák et al., 2017; McDonald, 1984), while in others nonfood liquids are ignored even in the close vicinity of the nest (Agbogba, 1985; Banschbach et al., 2006). In the study of Banschbach et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Protective behavior or ‘true’ tool use? Scrutinizing the tool use behavior of ants

Módra

Maák

Lőrincz

et al. 2020

Ecology and Evolution

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Protective behavior or ‘true’ tool use? Scrutinizing the tool use behavior of ants

Módra

Maák

Lőrincz

et al. 2020

Ecology and Evolution

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“…Nevertheless, we should acknowledge that in the present study we used only one type of tool. We know that Aphaenogaster ants are able to select among different types of tools according to their soaking capacity and the environmental context ( Maák et al, 2017 ; Lőrinczi et al, 2018 ) and that they learn to choose the optimal tools over successive trials ( Maák et al, 2017 ), therefore we cannot exclude that social learning could play a role in the process of tool selection, a possibility that awaits formal testing.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, ants can learn to use artificial material that is novel to them and select the material with optimal soaking properties, thus showing that tool use is not behaviourally fixed in ants ( Maák et al, 2017 ). Tool selection also depends on the foraging environment and varies with food type (viscosity), distance, and availability of tools ( Lőrinczi et al, 2018 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A small number of workers with specific personality traits perform tool use in ants

Maák

Roelandt

d’Ettorre

2020

eLife

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Ants use debris as tools to collect and transport liquid food to the nest. Previous studies showed that this behaviour is flexible whereby ants learn to use artificial material that is novel to them and select tools with optimal soaking properties. However, the process of tool use has not been studied at the individual level. We investigated whether workers specialise in tool use and whether there is a link between individual personality traits and tool use in the ant Aphaenogaster senilis. Only a small number of workers performed tool use and they did it repeatedly, although they also collected solid food. Personality predicted the probability to perform tool use: ants that showed higher exploratory activity and were more attracted to a prey in the personality tests became the new tool users when previous tool users were removed from the group. This suggests that, instead of extreme task specialisation, variation in personality traits within the colony may improve division of labour.

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Comparison of foraging tool use in two species of myrmicine ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

et al. 2021

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Many ant species are known to exhibit foraging tool use, during which ants place various debris items (e.g., pieces of soil, leaves, pine needles, etc.) into liquid food, and then they carry the food-soaked tools back to the nest. In the present study, we compared the tool-using behavior in captive colonies of two closely related myrmicine ants with different feeding preferences: Aphaenogaster subterranea, an omnivorous species, and Messor structor, a mainly granivorous seed-harvester species. We supplied foraging ants with honey-water baits and six types of objects they could use as tools: sand grains, small soil grains, large soil grains, pine needles, leaves, and sponges. We found that the workers of A. subterranea both dropped more tools into honey-water baits and retrieved more of these tools than the workers of M. structor. While A. subterranea preferred smaller tools over larger ones, tool preferences for M. structor did not differ significantly from random. In addition, tool dropping was significantly faster in A. subterranea, and both the dropping and retrieving of tools began significantly earlier than in M. structor. For Aphaenogaster species that regularly utilize and compete for liquid food sources, the ability to efficiently transport liquid food via tools may be more important than it is for seed-harvester ants. Dropping tools into liquids, however, may still be useful for seed-harvester species as a means to supplement diet with liquid food during periods of seed shortage and also to serve as a means of getting rid of unwanted liquids close to the nest.

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Which tools to use? Choice optimization in the tool-using ant, Aphaenogaster subterranea

Cited by 11 publications

References 25 publications

Protective behavior or ‘true’ tool use? Scrutinizing the tool use behavior of ants

Protective behavior or ‘true’ tool use? Scrutinizing the tool use behavior of ants

A small number of workers with specific personality traits perform tool use in ants

Comparison of foraging tool use in two species of myrmicine ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

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