Visual prey discrimination of queen and worker ants by a generalist lizard |
| |
Authors: | Masami Hasegawa Yumi Taniguchi |
| |
Institution: | (1) Department of Ecological Sciences, Natural History Museum and Institute, Chiba, Aoba-cho 955-2, 260 Chibd, Japan;(2) Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Toho University, Miyama, 273 Funabashi, Japan |
| |
Abstract: | Laboratory experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that widelyforaging generalist lizard,Eumeces okadae, visually discriminates palatable queen ants from unpalatable worker ants. The workers ofCamponotus japonicus andLasius niger were rejected on sight, while the queens of both species were eaten with little prior chemical examination by tongue flicks
or licks. Comparison of the lizards' responses towards the workers and wingless queens of similar size indicated that neither
body size nor presence or absence of wings accounted for difference in responses toward the 2 ant castes. The lizards probably
discriminated different ant castes by body proportions. |
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|