Food transport in ants : Do Lasius niger foragers maximize their individual load ?
(2009) Comptes rendus.Biologies — Vol. 332, n° 5, p. 500-506 (2009)
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Details
- Authors
- Abstract
- The decision for a Lasius niger forager to lay a chemical trail and launch recruitment to a food source is governed by an internal individual threshold. The value of this threshold triggering chemical communication is not set by the maximal capacity of the crop. Actually, trail-laying ants are still able to drink additional food encountered on their homeward journey. The partial filling of the crop by trail-laying ants may be a means for the ants to shorten foraging trips and to speed up the information updating within the nest. Moreover, by partially filling their crop, foragers keep a potential for sampling resources and for tasting other encountered food sources.
- Affiliations
Université libre de Bruxelles Unit of Social Ecology Université libre de Bruxelles nit of Social Ecology
Citations
Mailleux, A.-C., Deneubourg, J.-L., & Detrain, C. (2009). Food transport in ants : Do Lasius niger foragers maximize their individual load ? Comptes rendus.Biologies, 332(5), 500-506. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crvi.2008.10.005 (Original work published 2009)