Triggering and persistence of trail-laying in foragers of the ant Lasius niger
(2005) Journal of Insect Physiology — Vol. 51, n° 3, p. 297-304 (2005)
Files
200.pdf
Restricted Access - Adobe PDF
- 242.74 KB
Details
- Authors
- Abstract
- In the ant Lasius niger, the ability to ingest their own desired volume is the key criterion that rules the recruiting behaviour of scouts. This volume acts as a threshold triggering the trail-laying response of foragers. In this paper, we show that this desired volume is specific to each individual and is kept constant over successive trips to a food source. This individual specificity contrasts with the variability of all individual desired volumes within the colony. In this study, it is also shown that, among L. niger foragers, 14% never participate in the formation of the chemical pathway and never lay a trail over successive trips. Among the others foragers, interindividual differences in the persistence of trail-laying behaviour over successive trips are observed but do not rely on an individual specialisation, in which some ants would lay a trail more frequently and persistently than other scouts. We discuss how an individual in the foraging behaviour can play an essential role in the regulation of food retrieval dynamics.
- Affiliations
Universite Libre de Bruxelles Laboratoire de Lutte Biologique et Ecologie Spatiale Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium Service d’Ecologie Sociale
Citations
Mailleux, A.-C., Detrain, C., & Deneubourg, J.-L. (2005). Triggering and persistence of trail-laying in foragers of the ant Lasius niger. Journal of Insect Physiology, 51(3), 297-304. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinsphys.2004.12.001 (Original work published 2005)