Leg or antenna injury in Cataglyphis ants impairs survival but does not hinder searching for food

Injury is common in nature resulting, for example, from fighting, partial predation, or the wear of body parts. Injury is costly, expressed in impaired performance, failure in competition, and a shorter life span. A survey of the literature revealed the frequent occurrence of injury in ants and its various causes. We examined whether leg or antenna injury impacts food-discovery time and reduces the likelihood of reaching food in workers of the desert ant Cataglyphis niger. We examined the search-related consequences of injury in groups of either 4 or 8 workers searching for food in a short arena, a long arena, and a maze. We conducted a small field survey to evaluate the prevalence of injury in the studied population. Finally, we compared the survival rates of injured versus uninjured workers in the laboratory. Injury was common in the field, with almost 9% of the workers collected out of the nest, found to be injured. Injured workers survived shorter than uninjured ones and there was a positive link between injury severity and survival. However, we could not detect an effect of injury on any of the searching-related response variables, neither in the arenas nor in the mazes tested. We suggest that workers that survive such injury are only moderately affected by it.

Automated summary

Although injury is common in ants, it does not significantly affect the food-searching behavior of worker ants.