Ants use pheromone markings in emigrations to move closer to food-rich areas
Ants use pheromone markings in emigrations to move closer to food-rich areas
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DOI：
10.1007/s00040-011-0192-8
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发表时间：
2012-02-01
期刊：
影响因子：
1.3
通讯作者：
Dornhaus, A.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Cao, T. T.;Dornhaus, A.
巢址质量会影响生存和繁殖，因此许多动物进化出有助于巢址评估和选择的行为。蚂蚁属Temnothorax已被证明包括一系列的巢址属性时，选择这样的网站。在这里，我们表明，它们还包括巢址周围的栖息地的特征。特别是，我们发现，在移民期间，蚂蚁更喜欢移动到位于靠近以前探索的食物丰富的地区的巢穴。我们还确定，气味标记在这种选择中发挥了作用，侦察员和运输蚂蚁可能已经跟踪了觅食时的气味标记，这种行为可能会偏向于迁移到以前觅食区域附近的巢穴。这些结果表明，信息素发挥更大的作用，在Temnothorax觅食和移民决策比以前认为的。总的来说，这项工作提供了新的见解，参与蚂蚁栖息地选择的机制，并有助于我们了解社会昆虫的集体行为。
Nest site quality can affect survival and reproduction, and thus many animals have evolved behaviors which facilitate nest site assessment and selection. Ants of the genus Temnothorax have been shown to include an array of nest site attributes when choosing such a site. Here, we show that they also include traits of the habitat surrounding nest sites. In particular, we found that during emigration, ants preferred to move to nests located close to a previously explored food-rich area. We also determined that scent markings played a role in this choice and that scouts and transporting ants may have tracked scent marks laid in foraging, and this behavior could have biased emigration toward nests located near previously foraged areas. These results indicate that pheromones play a bigger role in Temnothorax foraging and decision making in emigration than previously thought. Overall, this work provides new insights into the mechanisms involved in habitat selection in ants and contributes to our understanding of collective behavior in social insects in general.