Pheromone trails in the Brazilian ant Pheidole oxyops: extreme properties and dual recruitment action
Pheromone trails in the Brazilian ant Pheidole oxyops: extreme properties and dual recruitment action
复制标题
巴西蚂蚁 Pheidole oxyops 的信息素踪迹：极端特性和双重招募作用
DOI：
--
复制
发表时间：
2012
影响因子：
2.3
通讯作者：
F. Ratnieks
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
T. Czaczkes;F. Ratnieks
觅食地点的交流在群居动物中很普遍。许多蚂蚁使用信息素踪迹来引导巢友找到食物来源，但踪迹的性质和使用方式各不相同。蚁Pheidole oxyops检索猎物合作使用多个工人。被招募的工蜂会被最初发现者留下的信息素指引到猎物那里。与其他蚂蚁相比，这条足迹具有极端的特性。尽管只有一只蚂蚁留下了新的痕迹，但它们会非常准确地跟踪（在分叉处有84.4%的正确选择），但仅在5-7分钟内就会腐烂。这种极端的准确性和短暂的持续时间可能反映了对摄食生态学潜在差异的适应。特别是，P. oxyops需要在竞争环境中迅速将巢友招募到精确的位置。快速衰减结合1.4 m/min的自然行走速度，应将募集范围的上限设定为4 m（往返8 m）。然而，实验放置的食物从巢入口处8米合作检索。这是由于该路线具有双重招募作用。它不仅从蚁穴中招募蚂蚁，而且还拦截已经在蚁穴外的蚂蚁，使它们加入追踪。75%的蚂蚁加入了这条线索，然后沿着它走向食物。即使从巢直接招募被阻止，这种二次招募行动导致7倍的蚂蚁找到食物来源比偶然发现，并在项目被移动快46%。
Communication of feeding locations is widespread in social animals. Many ants use pheromone trails to guide nestmates to food sources, but trail properties and how they are used vary. The ant Pheidole oxyops retrieves prey cooperatively using multiple workers. The recruited workers are guided to the prey by a pheromone trail laid by the initial discoverer. In comparison to other ants, this trail has extreme properties. Despite being laid by just one ant, freshly laid trails are followed very accurately (84.4 % correct choices at a bifurcation), but decay in only 5–7 min. This extreme accuracy and short duration probably reflect adaptations to underlying differences in feeding ecology. In particular, P. oxyops needs to rapidly recruit nestmates to a precise location in a competitive environment. Rapid decay combined with a natural walking speed of 1.4 m/min should set an upper limit of 4 m (an 8-m round trip) on recruitment range. However, experimentally placed food items up to 8 m from the nest entrance were cooperatively retrieved. This greater range is due to the trail having a dual recruitment role. It not only recruits from the nest but also intercepts ants already outside the nest, causing them to join the trail. Seventy-five per cent of ants joining the trail then followed it towards the food item. Even when direct recruitment from the nest was prevented, this secondary recruitment action resulted in seven times as many ants locating a food source than by chance discovery and in items being moved 46 % sooner.