Intraspecific competition for a nest and its implication for the fitness of relocating ant colonies

IF 1.4 3区 农林科学 Q2 ENTOMOLOGY
E. Halder, S. Annagiri
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Abstract

Intraspecific competition is a fundamental ecological process. Studies in ants have explored this mainly in the context of foraging. There is a notable gap in our understanding of competition dynamics during goal-oriented task of colony relocation even though this task impacts the survival and fitness of colonies. Here, we instigated a competition between equal (n = 17) and unequal (n = 14) sized Diacamma indicum colonies for a new nest and contrasted our findings with two sets of controls—colonies that relocated without facing any competition and colonies that did not relocate. In majority of the trials, one colony successfully occupied the new nest and colony size was a factor in determining this success. In addition, colonies with more explorers and lower latency to start recruitment had a significantly higher chance of occupying the new nest. In 23% of the trials, both colonies merged, following cross colony tandem recruitment and one of the gamergates was killed. The level of aggression displayed by the competing colonies was comparable, but the wining colonies had a lower percentage of colony involved in aggression. Higher levels of aggression were noted in the area close to at the old and new nest site. Further, there was exchange of pupae between competing colonies and larger colonies showed 2.86 times higher pupae theft. Losing colonies experienced significantly higher mortality as compared to controls. Winning colonies experienced higher mortality as compared to non relocating controls. This study showcases how intraspecific competition during colony relocation shapes colony composition, fitness and population dynamics in an ant community.

Abstract Image

争夺巢穴的种内竞争及其对搬迁蚁群适应性的影响
种内竞争是一个基本的生态过程。对蚂蚁的研究主要是在觅食的背景下进行的。我们对蚁群搬迁这一以目标为导向的任务中的竞争动态的理解还存在明显的差距,尽管这一任务影响着蚁群的生存和健康。在这里,我们在大小相等(n = 17)和不相等(n = 14)的茚虫威蜂群之间展开了一场争夺新巢的竞争,并将我们的发现与两组对照组--未面临任何竞争而搬迁的蜂群和未搬迁的蜂群--进行了对比。在大多数试验中,都有一个群落成功占据了新巢穴,而群落的大小是决定成功与否的一个因素。此外,探索者越多、开始招募的潜伏期越短的蜂群占据新巢的几率就越大。在 23% 的试验中,两个群落在跨群落串联招募后合并,其中一个配子被杀死。相互竞争的蜂群所表现出的攻击性水平相当,但获胜蜂群参与攻击的比例较低。在靠近新旧巢址的区域,攻击性更强。此外,相互竞争的蜂群之间也有蛹的交换,较大的蜂群偷盗蛹的数量比较大的蜂群高 2.86 倍。与对照组相比,失败蜂群的死亡率明显较高。与未搬迁的对照组相比,获胜的蜂群死亡率更高。这项研究展示了蚁群迁移过程中的种内竞争如何影响蚁群的组成、适应性和种群动态。
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来源期刊
Insectes Sociaux
Insectes Sociaux 生物-昆虫学
CiteScore
2.70
自引率
7.70%
发文量
43
审稿时长
6-12 weeks
期刊介绍: Insectes Sociaux (IS) is the journal of the International Union for the Study of Social Insects (IUSSI). It covers the various aspects of the biology and evolution of social insects and other presocial arthropods; these include ecology, ethology, morphology, population genetics, reproduction, communication, sociobiology, caste differentiation and social parasitism. The journal publishes original research papers and reviews, as well as short communications. An international editorial board of eminent specialists attests to the high quality of Insectes Sociaux, a forum for all scientists and readers interested in the study of social insects.
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