Individual Variation Does Not Regulate Foraging Response to Humidity in Harvester Ant Colonies
Individual Variation Does Not Regulate Foraging Response to Humidity in Harvester Ant Colonies
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DOI：
10.3389/fevo.2021.756204
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发表时间：
2022-01-20
影响因子：
3
通讯作者：
Gordon, Deborah M.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Nova, Nicole;Pagliara, Renato;Gordon, Deborah M.
群体之间在集体行为上的差异可能源于所有群体成员共同的反应，或者相反，来自特定类型个人分布的差异。我们研究了沙漠红收获蚁(Pogonomyrmex Barbatus)群体觅食行为的集体调节是否取决于觅食者之间的个体差异。觅食者在炎热干燥的条件下寻找种子时会失去水分，因此蜂群会根据湿度来调节觅食活动。在夏天，觅食活动在湿度高的清晨开始，在湿度低的中午结束。我们通过跟踪被标记的个体的觅食行程，调查了一个群体内的个体觅食者在决定是否在下一次觅食旅程中随着湿度的降低而离开巢的不同。我们发现，个体对当前湿度的反应并没有不同。在湿度低的时候，没有蚂蚁比其他蚂蚁更有可能停止觅食。每天的出行次数分布是不对称的：只有少数人出行很多，但大多数人出行次数很少。我们发现，从一天到第二天，个体觅食者并没有表现出任何一致的趋势，进行类似的旅行次数。这些结果表明，在以前的工作中发现的群体之间对湿度反应的差异，是由于群体中所有工蚁对当前湿度的行为反应，而不是由于不同反应的觅食者群体内的分布。
Differences among groups in collective behavior may arise from responses that all group members share, or instead from differences in the distribution of individuals of particular types. We examined whether the collective regulation of foraging behavior in colonies of the desert red harvester ant (Pogonomyrmex barbatus) depends on individual differences among foragers. Foragers lose water while searching for seeds in hot, dry conditions, so colonies regulate foraging activity in response to humidity. In the summer, foraging activity begins in the early morning when humidity is high, and ends at midday when humidity is low. We investigated whether individual foragers within a colony differ in the decision whether to leave the nest on their next foraging trip as humidity decreases, by tracking the foraging trips of marked individuals. We found that individuals did not differ in response to current humidity. No ants were consistently more likely than others to stop foraging when humidity is low. Each day there is a skewed distribution of trip number: only a few individuals make many trips, but most individuals make few trips. We found that from one day to the next, individual foragers do not show any consistent tendency to make a similar number of trips. These results suggest that the differences among colonies in response to humidity, found in previous work, are due to behavioral responses to current humidity that all workers in a colony share, rather than to the distribution within a colony of foragers that differ in response.