The regulation of foraging activity in red harvester ant colonies

The American Naturalist
Deborah M Gordon

Abstract

Behavioral plasticity in social insects is intriguing because colonies adjust to environmental change through the aggregated responses of individuals. Without central control, colonies adjust numbers of workers allocated to various tasks. Individual decisions are based on local information from the environment and other workers. This study examines how colonies of the seed-eating ant Pogonomyrmex barbatus adjust the intensity of foraging in an arid environment where conspecific neighbors compete for foraging area. The main question is how foragers decide whether to leave the nest. Patrollers search the area before foragers emerge. Removal experiments show that the return of the patrollers stimulates the onset of foraging, and later, the rate at which foragers return affects the rate at which foragers continue to leave the nest. Foraging activity is less sensitive to changes in the rate of returning foragers than to changes in the rate of returning patrollers. These results suggest that whether a colony forages at all on a given day depends on conditions detected early by patrollers but that once foraging begins, the intensity of foraging does not track, on an hourly timescale, how quickly foragers can find food.

References

Jan 4, 2001·Journal of Comparative Physiology. A, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology·M KaibW Francke

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Citations

Apr 16, 2011·Journal of Chemical Ecology·Shelby J SturgisDeborah M Gordon
May 2, 2003·Nature·Michael J Greene, Deborah M Gordon
Apr 6, 2012·Behavioral Ecology : Official Journal of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology·Deborah M GordonSusan Holmes
Apr 15, 2011·Journal of the Royal Society, Interface·Noa Pinter-WollmanDeborah M Gordon
Aug 29, 2012·PLoS Computational Biology·Balaji PrabhakarDeborah M Gordon
May 30, 2013·PloS One·Deborah M GordonNoa Pinter-Wollman
Jan 4, 2008·The American Naturalist·Michael J Greene, Deborah M Gordon
Nov 18, 2003·The American Naturalist·Frederick R Adler, Deborah M Gordon
Sep 14, 2013·Animal Behaviour·Noa Pinter-WollmanDeborah M Gordon
Nov 6, 2015·PloS One·Evlyn PlessDeborah M Gordon
Jun 3, 2016·Environmental Entomology·J Hernández-FloresC Martínez-Garza
Mar 13, 2014·PLoS Biology·Deborah M Gordon
Aug 2, 2017·Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution·Jacob D DavidsonMark S Goldman
Aug 26, 2011·The Journal of Experimental Biology·Nathalie StroeymeytMartin Giurfa
Sep 27, 2003·Science·Jennifer H Fewell
Oct 12, 2021·The Journal of Heredity·Justin T WalshTimothy A Linksvayer

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