Journal
INSECTES SOCIAUX
Volume 49, Issue 4, Pages 371-379Publisher
SPRINGER BASEL AG
DOI: 10.1007/PL00012661
Keywords
foraging; behavioral plasticity; task allocation; desert ants; Aphaenogaster cockerelli
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Social insect colonies can respond to changes in resource availability by altering their foraging behavior. Colonies of the desert ant, Aphaenogaster cockerelli, responded to experimental changes in the distribution and type of available resources by adjusting the numbers of ants engaged in foraging and other tasks outside the. nest, and by adjusting the temporal patterns of these activities. Colonies foraged more intensely for protein resources than for seed resources, and for high-density resources more than for low-density resources. This flexible allocation and resource use may promote coexistence with interspecific competitors such as ants in the genus Myrmecocystus.
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