The influence of forager number and colony size on food distribution in the odorous house ant, Tapinoma sessile |
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Authors: | G Buczkowski G Bennett |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Entomology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA |
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Abstract: | Stomodeal trophallaxis plays a major role in ant colony nutrition and communication. While the rate of food distribution at
the individual level (worker to worker) is rapid, factors affecting the rate of food distribution at the colony level remain
poorly understood. We used the odorous house ant, Tapinoma sessile (Say), as a model species to investigate the factors affecting the rate of spread of liquid carbohydrate food throughout
a colony. To track the movement of the food we used protein marking and double antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent
assay, DAS-ELISA. Increasing colony size while keeping the number of donor workers constant significantly decreased the number
of individuals testing positive for the marker. After 8 h of trophallactic interactions with ten donors, 92 ± 5% of recipient
workers tested positive in a colony of 125 and 38 ± 5% tested positive in a colony of 1,000. Interestingly, as colony size
increased and the percentage of workers testing positive decreased, the proportion of workers actually receiving food increased.
Food originating from a single donor fed approximately 12 individuals in colonies comprised of 125 recipients and approximately
38 individuals in colonies comprised of 1,000 recipients. Thus, the per capita consumption of food decreased as colony size
increased, most likely because the amount of food reaching the colony was limited. Increasing the number of donors while keeping
colony size constant significantly increased the number of recipient ants testing positive for the marker. As the number of
donor workers doubled, the percentage of recipients testing positive more than doubled suggesting that the number of individuals
receiving food increases with increasing colony size, while the per capita amount of food decreases. When food was available
ad libitum and in close proximity to the nest, numerous workers fed directly at the food source. This dramatically increased
the rate and the extent of food distribution to both the workers and the queens and colony size had no significant effect
on the spread of the marker in the workers or the queens. The rate and the extent of food distribution at the colony level
may depend on a number of factors including the number of successful foragers, the size and density of the recipient colony,
and the recipient caste. |
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Keywords: | Foraging Immunomarking Odorous house ant Protein marking Tapinoma sessile Trophallaxis |
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