Tomer J. Czaczkes, Federico-Javier Olivera-Rodriguez, Laure-Anne Poissonnier
{"title":"蚂蚁(Lasius niger)在靠近食物源和远离巢穴的地方沉积更多的信息素,但并不试图更新错误的信息素轨迹","authors":"Tomer J. Czaczkes, Federico-Javier Olivera-Rodriguez, Laure-Anne Poissonnier","doi":"10.1007/s00040-024-00995-y","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Many social insects use pheromone trails to recruit workers to resources. Pheromone trails have some limitations, however. Two major limitations are that they evaporate over time, meaning that more distant locations may be more difficult to recruit precisely to, and that they cannot be removed if laid erroneously, or if they become outdated. Here, we ask whether <i>Lasius niger</i> ants can adaptively modulate pheromone deposition to overcome these limitations. Specifically, we first ask whether ants which have followed a pheromone trail to a wrong (unrewarded) location upregulate pheromone deposition to the correct food location to compete with the erroneous trail. They do not. Then, we examine how food distance and proximity to food influence pheromone deposition. We find that ants deposit up to 22 times more pheromone within 10 cm of a food source compared to when they are about to reach the nest. Moreover, they deposit up to four times more pheromone next to a food source placed 100 cm away from the nest as compared to one placed 20 cm away from the nest. <i>Lasius niger</i> ants thus do not display a mechanism for overcoming outdated or erroneously-laid trails by strengthening correct alternatives in our experiment, but do strongly upregulate recruitment to more distant food sources, which are more difficult to locate and recruit to.</p>","PeriodicalId":13573,"journal":{"name":"Insectes Sociaux","volume":"57 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"Ants (Lasius niger) deposit more pheromone close to food sources and further from the nest but do not attempt to update erroneous pheromone trails\",\"authors\":\"Tomer J. Czaczkes, Federico-Javier Olivera-Rodriguez, Laure-Anne Poissonnier\",\"doi\":\"10.1007/s00040-024-00995-y\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"<p>Many social insects use pheromone trails to recruit workers to resources. Pheromone trails have some limitations, however. Two major limitations are that they evaporate over time, meaning that more distant locations may be more difficult to recruit precisely to, and that they cannot be removed if laid erroneously, or if they become outdated. Here, we ask whether <i>Lasius niger</i> ants can adaptively modulate pheromone deposition to overcome these limitations. Specifically, we first ask whether ants which have followed a pheromone trail to a wrong (unrewarded) location upregulate pheromone deposition to the correct food location to compete with the erroneous trail. They do not. Then, we examine how food distance and proximity to food influence pheromone deposition. We find that ants deposit up to 22 times more pheromone within 10 cm of a food source compared to when they are about to reach the nest. Moreover, they deposit up to four times more pheromone next to a food source placed 100 cm away from the nest as compared to one placed 20 cm away from the nest. <i>Lasius niger</i> ants thus do not display a mechanism for overcoming outdated or erroneously-laid trails by strengthening correct alternatives in our experiment, but do strongly upregulate recruitment to more distant food sources, which are more difficult to locate and recruit to.</p>\",\"PeriodicalId\":13573,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Insectes Sociaux\",\"volume\":\"57 1\",\"pages\":\"\"},\"PeriodicalIF\":1.4000,\"publicationDate\":\"2024-08-30\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Insectes Sociaux\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"97\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00040-024-00995-y\",\"RegionNum\":3,\"RegionCategory\":\"农林科学\",\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"Q2\",\"JCRName\":\"ENTOMOLOGY\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Insectes Sociaux","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00040-024-00995-y","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ENTOMOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
Ants (Lasius niger) deposit more pheromone close to food sources and further from the nest but do not attempt to update erroneous pheromone trails
Many social insects use pheromone trails to recruit workers to resources. Pheromone trails have some limitations, however. Two major limitations are that they evaporate over time, meaning that more distant locations may be more difficult to recruit precisely to, and that they cannot be removed if laid erroneously, or if they become outdated. Here, we ask whether Lasius niger ants can adaptively modulate pheromone deposition to overcome these limitations. Specifically, we first ask whether ants which have followed a pheromone trail to a wrong (unrewarded) location upregulate pheromone deposition to the correct food location to compete with the erroneous trail. They do not. Then, we examine how food distance and proximity to food influence pheromone deposition. We find that ants deposit up to 22 times more pheromone within 10 cm of a food source compared to when they are about to reach the nest. Moreover, they deposit up to four times more pheromone next to a food source placed 100 cm away from the nest as compared to one placed 20 cm away from the nest. Lasius niger ants thus do not display a mechanism for overcoming outdated or erroneously-laid trails by strengthening correct alternatives in our experiment, but do strongly upregulate recruitment to more distant food sources, which are more difficult to locate and recruit to.
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.