Journal
BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY AND SOCIOBIOLOGY
Volume 71, Issue 3, Pages -Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s00265-017-2274-8
Keywords
Ant guests; Caste; Nest defense; Polymorphism; Symbiosis; Task specialization
Categories
Funding
- Belgian Focal Point of the Global taxonomy Initiative
- FWO Vlaanderen (Research Foundation Flanders) [11D6414N]
- Centre of Excellence [PF/10/07-SEEDS]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Social insects have a highly developed nestmate and species recognition system that is quite effective at keeping out unwanted intruders. Rare cases of parabiosis, however, are known in some ants where two species apparently live peacefully alongside each other within the same nest. Here, we report on such an association between the tiny Afrotropical ant Strumigenys maynei and the large ant Platythyrea conradti. We demonstrated that both ants peacefully share the same arboreal nests in spite of the presence of clearly distinct nestmate recognition cues. Because of the large size differences, we hypothesized that each of the two species would benefit from specializing in carrying out particular tasks, in analogy to the size-related division of labor observed in species with size-polymorphic workers. In line with this theory, we found that the tiny ant S. maynei was highly efficient at nest defense against intranidal arthropods and alien ant intruders, whereas the large ant P. conradti was highly skilled in nest engineering. We argue that the described association is likely mutualistic, as P. conradti clearly benefited from the supreme defense capabilities of S. maynei, and that, conversely, S. maynei took advantage of small prey thriving in the organic nest material collected by P. conradti.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available