Ants use pheromone markings in emigrations to move closer to food-rich areas

Insectes Sociaux

Volumn 59, Issue 1, 2012, Pages 87-92

  Cao, T T ^a   Dornhaus, A ^a  

^a The University of Arizona   (United States)

Author keywords

Ants; Colony emigration; Food location; Nest choice; Pheromone; Temnothorax

Indexed keywords

ANT; DECISION MAKING; EMIGRATION; HABITAT SELECTION; NEST SITE; PHEROMONE; SCENT MARKING; SOCIAL INSECT; SURVIVAL;

ANIMALIA; FORMICIDAE; HEXAPODA; TEMNOTHORAX;

EID: 84855741705     PISSN: 00201812     EISSN: 14209098     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/s00040-011-0192-8     Document Type: Article

References (60)

1. Adams E. S. 1994. Territory defense by the ant Azteca trigona - maintenance of an arboreal ant mosaic. Oecologia 97: 202-208.
2. Banschbach V. S. and Herbers J. M. 1999. Nest movements and population spatial structure of the forest ant Myrmica punctiventris (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 92: 414-423.
3. Beckers R., Deneubourg J. L. and Goss S. 1992. Trail laying behavior during food recruitment in the ant Lasius niger. Insect. Soc. 39: 59-72.
4. Burke D. M. and Nol E. 1998. Influences of food abundance, nest-site habitat, and forest fragmentation on breeding ovenbirds. The Auk 115: 96-104.
5. Cody M. L. 1974. Optimization in ecology: natural selection produces optimal results unless constrained by history or by competing goals. Science 183: 1156-1164.
6. Davidson D. W. 1997. The role of resource imbalances in the evolutionary ecology of tropical arboreal ants. Biol. J. Linn. Soc. 61: 153-181.
7. Depickère S., Fresneau D., Detrain C. and Deneubourg J. L. 2004. Marking as a decision factor in the choice of a new resting site in Lasius niger. Insect. Soc. 51: 243-246.
8. Fewell J. H., Harrison J. F., Lighton J. R. B. and Breed M. D. 1996. Foraging energetics of the ant, Paraponera clavata. Oecologia 105: 419-427.
9. Foitzik S., Backus V. L., Trindl A. and Herbers J. M. 2004. Ecology of Leptothorax ants: impact of food, nest sites, and social parasites. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 55: 484-493.
10. Forsman J. T., Hjernquist M. B., Taipale J. and Gustafsson L. 2008. Competitor density cues for habitat quality facilitating habitat selection and investment decisions. Behav. Ecol. 19: 539-545.
11. Franks N. R., Mallon E. B., Bray H. E., Hamilton M. J. and Mischler T. C. 2003. Strategies for choosing between alternatives with different attributes: exemplified by house-hunting ants. Anim. Behav. 65: 215-223.
12. Franks N. R., Hooper J., Webb C. and Dornhaus A. 2005. Tomb evaders: house-hunting hygiene in ants. Biol. Lett. 1: 190-192.
13. Franks N. R. and Richardson T. 2006. Teaching in tandem-running ants. Nature 439: 153-153.
14. Franks N. R., Dornhaus A., Best C. S. and Jones E. L. 2006a. Decision making by small and large house-hunting ant colonies: one size fits all. Anim. Behav. 72: 611-616.
15. Franks N. R., Dornhaus A., Metherell B. G., Nelson T. R., Lanfear S. A. J. and Symes W. S. 2006b. Not everything that counts can be counted: ants use multiple metrics for a single nest trait. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci. 273: 165-169.
16. Franks N. R., Dornhaus A., Hitchcock G., Guillem R., Hooper J. and Webb C. 2007a. Avoidance of conspecific colonies during nest choice by ants. Anim. Behav. 73: 525-534.
17. Franks N. R., Hooper J. W., Dornhaus A., Aukett P. J., Hayward A. L. and Berghoff S. M. 2007b. Reconnaissance and latent learning in ants. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci. 274: 1505-1509.
18. Gordon D. M. 1992. Nest relocation in harvester ants. Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 85: 44-47.
19. Gustafsson L. 1987. Interspecific competition lowers fitness in collared flycatchers Ficedula albicollis - an experimental demonstration. Ecology 68: 291-296.
20. Herbers J. M., Adamowicz S. C. and Helms S. D. 1985. Seasonal-changes in social organization of Aphaenogaster rudis (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Sociobiology 10: 1-15.
21. Hölldobler B. 1976. Tournaments and slavery in a desert ant. Science 192: 912-914.
22. Hölldobler B. and Wilson E. O. 1977. Weaver ants - social establishment and maintenance of territory. Science 195: 900-902.
23. Hölldobler B. and Wilson E. O. 1990. The Ants. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
24. Holway D. A. and Case T. J. 2000. Mechanisms of dispersed central-place foraging in polydomous colonies of the Argentine ant. Anim. Behav. 59: 433-441.
25. Kleineidam C. J., Ruchty M., Casero-Montes Z. A. and Roces F. 2007. Thermal radiation as a learned orientation cue in leaf-cutting ants (Atta vollenweideri). J. Insect Physiol. 53: 478-487.
26. Klotz J. H. and Reid B. L. 1993. Nocturnal orientation in the black carpenter ant Camponotus pennsylvanicus (DeGeer) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Insect. Soc. 40: 95-106.
27. Krebs J. R. and Davies N. B. 1993. An Introduction To Behavioural Ecology. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford.
28. Lenoir A., Depickère S., Devers S., Christides J. P. and Detrain C. 2009. Hydrocarbons in the ant Lasius niger: from the cuticle to the nest and home range marking. J. Chem. Ecol. 35: 913-921.
29. Mallon E. B. and Franks N. R. 2000. Ants estimate area using Buffon's needle. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci. 267: 765-770.
30. Maschwitz U. and Hanel H. 1985. The migrating herdsman Dolichoderus (Diabolus) cuspidatus - an ant with a novel mode of life. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 17: 171-184.
31. McGlynn T. P., Hoover J. R., Jasper G. S., Kelly M. S., Polis A. M., Spangler C. M. and Watson B. J. 2002. Resource heterogeneity affects demography of the Costa Rican ant Aphaenogaster araneoides. J. Trop. Ecol. 18: 231-244.
32. McGlynn T. P. 2006. Ants on the move: Resource limitation of a litter-nesting ant community in Costa Rica. Biotropica 38: 419-427.
33. McGlynn T. P. 2007. Serial monodomy in ants: an antipredator strategy? Ecol. Entomol. 32: 621-626.
34. McIver J. D. 1991. Dispersed central place foraging in Australian meat ants. Insect. Soc. 38: 129-137.
35. Morgan E. D. 2009. Trail pheromones of ants. Physiol. Entomol. 34: 1-17.
36. Morris D. W. 1987. Tests of density-dependent habitat selection in a patchy environment. Ecol. Monogr. 57: 269-281.
37. Morris D. W. 1989. Density-dependent habitat selection - testing the theory with fitness data. Evol. Ecol. 3: 80-94.
38. Nielsen M. G. 2001. Energetic cost of foraging in the ant Rhytidoponera aurata in tropical Australia. Physiol. Entomol. 26: 248-253.
39. Oster G. F. and Wilson E. O. 1978. Caste and Ecology in the Social Insects. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
40. Partridge L. W., Partridge K. A. and Franks N. R. 1997. Field survey of a monogynous leptothoracine ant (Hymenoptera, Formicidae): Evidence of seasonal polydomy? Insect. Soc. 44: 75-83.
41. Pratt S. C., Mallon E. B., Sumpter D. J. T. and Franks N. R. 2002. Quorum sensing, recruitment, and collective decision-making during colony emigration by the ant Leptothorax albipennis. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 52: 117-127.
42. Pratt S. C. 2005. Quorum sensing by encounter rates in the ant Temnothorax albipennis. Behav. Ecol. 16: 488-496.
43. Pratt S. C. 2008. Efficiency and regulation of recruitment during colony emigration by the ant Temnothorax curvispinosus. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 62: 1369-1376.
44. Richardson T. O., Sleeman P. A., McNamara J. M., Houston A. I. and Franks N. R. 2007. Teaching with evaluation in ants. Curr. Biol. 17: 1520-1526.
45. Riveros A. J. and Srygley R. B. 2008. Do leafcutter ants, Atta colombica, orient their path-integrated home vector with a magnetic compass? Anim. Behav. 75: 1273-1281.
46. Rüppell O., Heinze J. and Hölldobler B. 1998. Size-dimorphism in the queens of the North American ant Leptothorax rugatulus (Emery). Insect. Soc. 45: 67-77.
47. Rüppell O. and Kirkman R. W. 2005. Extraordinary starvation resistance in Temnothorax rugatulus (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) colonies: Demography and adaptive behavior. Insect. Soc. 52: 282-290.
48. Sergio F., Pedrini P. and Marchesi L. 2003. Adaptive selection of foraging and nesting habitat by black kites (Milvus migrans) and its implications for conservation: A multi-scale approach. Biol. Conserv. 112: 351-362.
49. Sergio F. and Newton I. 2003. Occupancy as a measure of territory quality. J. Anim. Ecol. 72: 857-865.
50. Sherman L. J. 1984. The effects of patchy food availability on nest-site selection and movement patterns of reproductively active female meadow Voles Microtus pennsylvanicus. Holarctic Ecol. 7: 294-299.
51. Shima J. S. and Osenberg C. W. 2003. Cryptic density dependence: Effects of covariation between density and site quality in reef fish. Ecology 84: 46-52.
52. Sinervo B. and DeNardo D. F. 1996. Costs of reproduction in the wild: Path analysis of natural selection and experimental tests of causation. Evolution 50: 1299-1313.
53. Smallwood J. and Culver D. C. 1979. Colony movements of some North-American ants. J. Anim. Ecol. 48: 373-382.
54. Smallwood J. 1982. Nest relocations in ants. Insect. Soc. 29: 138-147.
55. Tentschert J., Bestmann H. J., Hölldobler B. and Heinze J. 2000. 2, 3-dimethyl-5-(2-methylpropyl)pyrazin, a trail pheromone component of Eutetramorium mocquerysi Emery (1899) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Naturwissenschaften87: 377-380.
56. Torres-Contreras H. and Vasquez R. A. 2004. A field experiment on the influence of load transportation and patch distance on the locomotion velocity of Dorymyrmex goetschi (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Insect. Soc. 51: 265-270.
57. van Wilgenburg E. and Elgar M. A. 2007. Colony structure and spatial distribution of food resources in the polydomous meat ant Iridomyrmex purpureus. Insect. Soc. 54: 5-10.
58. Wilson E. O. 1975. Enemy specification in alarm-recruitment system of an ant. Science 190: 798-800.
59. Witte V. and Maschwitz U. 2002. Coordination of raiding and emigration in the ponerine army ant Leptogenys distinguenda (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Ponerinae): A signal analysis. J. Insect. Behav. 15: 195-217.
60. Yuan H. W., Burt D. B., Wang L. P., Chang W. L., Wang M. K., Chiou C. R. and Ding T. S. 2006. Colony site choice of blue-tailed bee-eaters: influences of soil, vegetation, and water quality. J. Nat. Hist. 40: 485-493.