Self-organized asymmetries in ant foraging: a functional response to food type and colony needs |
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Authors: | Portha Stephane; Deneubourg Jean-Louis; Detrain Claire |
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Institution: | a Laboratoire de Biologie Animale et Cellulaire, CP 160/12, Université
Libre de Bruxelles, 50 Avenue FD Roosevelt, B-1050 Bruxelles, Belgium
b Center for Nonlinear Phenomena and Complex Systems, CP 231, Université
Libre de Bruxelles, Boulevard du Triomphe, B-1050 Bruxelles, Belgium |
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Abstract: | The dominant paradigm to explain asymmetries in the spatialdistribution of foraging animals is that they track the spatialheterogeneity of their environment. However, in social insects,endogenous spatial asymmetries can emerge within a uniformenvironment as an outcome from the self-organizing processof trail recruitment. We studied how self-organized asymmetries
contribute to the exploitation of different food sources (carbohydrateor proteins) in colonies of the aphid-tending ant Lasius nigervarying in their nutritional needs (presence or absence ofbrood). Colonies with brood fed on sucrose sources exhibita higher mobilization of foragers than the other experimentalgroups. Foraging patterns differ greatly according to food
type: colonies strongly focus their activity on only one dropletof sucrose, whereas they show a rather homogeneous distributionof foragers between proteinaceous sources. In addition, thepresence of brood in the colony enhances the asymmetry of collectiveforaging for both types of food. These spatial differencesin self-organized foraging patterns allow efficient exploitationof natural resources and play a role in the competitive strategy
of this widespread palearctic ant. |
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Keywords: | aphid-tending ants brood diet foraging ecology Lasius niger recruitment spatial distribution |
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