Parallel evolution of thermophilia: daily and seasonal foraging patterns of heat-adapted desert ants: Cataglyphis and Ocymyrmex species

In the deserts of northern and southern Africa, respectively, ants of the genera Cataglyphis Foerster (Formicinae) and Ocymyrmex Emery (Myrmicinae) occupy the same ecological niche, which comprises that of a strictly diurnal thermophilic scavenger. Their daily foraging activities exhibit a bimodal pattern in summer and unimodality or complete inactivity in winter. The present study investigates whether these overall patterns are a result of endogenous annual activity rhythms of the colony or are triggered directly by the prevailing ambient temperatures. By exploiting various seasonal temperature regimes and, in particular, by creating near-nest winter conditions experimentally in summer, it is shown that the latter hypothesis is generally true. However, there are daily and annual variations in the temperature set points at which foraging activities start and finish. These temperatures are lower in the winter than in the summer months and, in summer, they are lower in the morning than in the afternoon. The level of foraging activity in the afternoon reaches maximum values at surface temperatures of 60-63 degrees C. This means that, in summer months, these thermophilic ants concentrate their foraging activities into a period of almost lethal temperature regimes, during which they have to devote a substantial portion of their time outside the nest to respite (i.e. cooling-off) behaviour.