Regulated food recruitment through individual behavior of scouts in the ant,Myrmica sabuleti (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
Tóm tắt
By presenting different kinds of food sources to colonies ofM. sabuleti, we have demonstrated that this species regulates its foraging activity by altering the proportion of scouts that return to the nest to recruit nestmates after discovering a food source and by varying the number of nestmates recruited by a scout. These two parameters are related to the kind of food discovered. Our behavioral experiments showed that the probability that a scout returned to the nest decreased with a decreasing quantity of sucrose solution. In contrast, the number of returned scouts that elicited recruitment from the nest and the mean number of nestmates recruited by one of these scouts were independent of the quantity of the sucrose solution. Recruitment even occurred toward a 1- or 0.25-µl droplet of sucrose solution. When a scout discovered a large dead prey, a large drop of prey juice, a cluster of 30 dead fruit flies, or 1 isolated fruit fly, it always went back to the nest, but it elicited recruitment only when the food source was a large dead prey or a large drop of prey juice. No recruitment occurred when the food source was a single fruit fly and recruitment occurred only once in 30 trials when a cluster of 30 fruit flies was discovered.
Tài liệu tham khảo
Breed, M. D., Fewell, J. H., Moore, A. J., and Williams, K. R. (1987) Graded recruitment in a ponerine ant.Behav. Ecol. Scoiobiol. 20 407–411.
Cammaerts, M. C. (1977). Recrutement d'ouvrières vers une source d'eau pure ou sucrée chez la fourmiMyrmica rubra L. (Formicidae).Biol. Behav. 2 287–308.
Cammaerts, M. C., and Cammaerts, R. (1980). Food recruitment strategies of the antsMyrmica sabuleti andMyrmica ruginodis.Behav. Process. 5 251–270.
de Biseau, J. C., Deneubourg, J. C., and Pasteels, J. M. (1991). Collective flexibility during mass recruitment in the antMyrmica sabuleti (Hymenoptera: Formicidae).Psyche 98 323–336.
Detrain, C., and Pasteels, J. M. (1991). Caste differences in behavioral thresholds as a basis for polyethism during food recruitment in the ant,Pheidole pallidula (Nyl.) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae).J. Insect Behav. 4 157–176.
Fourcassié, V., and Traniello, J. F. A. (1993). Effects of experience on food-searching behavior in the antFormica schaufussi (Hymenoptera: Formicidae).J. Insect Behav. 6 287–299.
Hangartner, W. (1969). Structure and variability of the individual odor trail inSolenopsis geminata Fabr. (Hymenoptera, Formicidae).Z. vergl. Physiol. 62 111–120.
Hangartner, W. (1970). Control of pheromone quantity in odor trails of the antAcanthomyops interjectus Mayr.Experientia 26 664–665.
Hölldobler, B., and Wilson, E. O. (1990).The Ants, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Passera, L. (1984).L'Organisation Sociale des Fourmis, Privat, Toulouse.
Szlep, R., and Jacobi, T. (1967). The mechanism of recruitment to mass foraging in colonies ofMonomorium vesnustum Smith,M. subopacum ssp.phoenicium Em.,Tapinoma israelis For. andT. simothi v.phoenicium Em.Insectes Soc. 14 25–40.
Taylor, F. (1976). Foraging behavior of ants: Experiments with two species of Myrmicine ants.Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 2 147–168.
Traniello, J. F. A. (1983). Social organization and foraging success inLasius neoniger (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): Behavioral and ecological aspects of recruitment communication.Oecologia 59 94–100.
Traniello, J. F. A. (1987). Social and individual responses to environmental factors in ants. In Pasteels, J. M., and Deneubourg, J. L. (eds.),From Individual to Collective Behaviour, Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel, pp. 63–80.
Traniello, J. F. A. (1989). Foraging strategies of ants.Annu. Rev. Entomol. 34 191–210.
Verhaeghe, J. C. (1982). Food recruitment inTetramorium impurum (Hymenoptera: Formicidae).Insectes Soc. 29 67–85.
Wilson, E. O. (1962). Chemical communication among workers of the fire antSolenopsis saevissima (Fr. Smith). 1. The organization of mass foraging.Anim. Behav. 10 134–147.