Interactions with Combined Chemical Cues Inform Harvester Ant Foragers' Decisions to Leave the Nest in Search of Food
Interactions with Combined Chemical Cues Inform Harvester Ant Foragers' Decisions to Leave the Nest in Search of Food
复制标题
DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0052219
复制
发表时间：
2013-01-08
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Gordon, Deborah M.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Greene, Michael J.;Pinter-Wollman, Noa;Gordon, Deborah M.
群居昆虫群体的运作没有中央控制，也没有对工人需要做什么进行任何全球评估。群体组织是个体对局部线索的反应。红收获蚁（Pogonomyrmex cumulatus）利用返回和外出觅食者之间的相互作用来调节觅食。觅食蜂带着种子返回的速度，是衡量食物可用性的一个指标，它决定了外出觅食蜂离开巢穴觅食的速度。我们使用模拟测试是否外向觅食巢内的食物，油酸，觅食本身的气味，表皮碳氢化合物的气味，或两者的结合，增加觅食活动的气味作出反应。我们比较了觅食活动，觅食者通过一条小路上的线的速度，在添加模仿者之前和之后。食物气味和觅食者气味的结合是刺激觅食所必需的。添加空白模拟物，模拟物与食物气味单独涂层，或模拟物与觅食气味单独涂层没有增加觅食活动。我们比较了巢内觅食蚂蚁与其他蚂蚁、空白模仿蚂蚁和涂有食物和觅食蚂蚁气味的模仿蚂蚁相互作用的速度。巢内的觅食者与混合觅食者/种子气味的模仿者的相互作用比与空白模仿者的相互作用更大，这些相互作用与其他觅食者的相互作用具有相同的效果。在巢口内外出觅食的蚂蚁会受到刺激，离开巢去寻找食物，这是通过与带着种子回来的蚂蚁互动来实现的。利用觅食蚁表皮碳氢化合物和种子的混合气味，殖民地可以在几秒钟的时间内捕捉到关于当前食物供应的精确信息。
Social insect colonies operate without central control or any global assessment of what needs to be done by workers. Colony organization arises from the responses of individuals to local cues. Red harvester ants (Pogonomyrmex barbatus) regulate foraging using interactions between returning and outgoing foragers. The rate at which foragers return with seeds, a measure of food availability, sets the rate at which outgoing foragers leave the nest on foraging trips. We used mimics to test whether outgoing foragers inside the nest respond to the odor of food, oleic acid, the odor of the forager itself, cuticular hydrocarbons, or a combination of both with increased foraging activity. We compared foraging activity, the rate at which foragers passed a line on a trail, before and after the addition of mimics. The combination of both odors, those of food and of foragers, is required to stimulate foraging. The addition of blank mimics, mimics coated with food odor alone, or mimics coated with forager odor alone did not increase foraging activity. We compared the rates at which foragers inside the nest interacted with other ants, blank mimics, and mimics coated with a combination of food and forager odor. Foragers inside the nest interacted more with mimics coated with combined forager/seed odors than with blank mimics, and these interactions had the same effect as those with other foragers. Outgoing foragers inside the nest entrance are stimulated to leave the nest in search of food by interacting with foragers returning with seeds. By using the combined odors of forager cuticular hydrocarbons and of seeds, the colony captures precise information, on the timescale of seconds, about the current availability of food.