Cooperative prey-retrieving in the ant Cataglyphis floricola: an unusual short-distance recruitment

Cataglyphis ants are mostly scavengers adapted to forage individually in arid environments. Although they are widely thought to have lost the capacity of recruitment, we provide evidence that C. floricola foragers that find a large prey near their nest are able to solicit the help of nestmates to carry it cooperatively. After discovering a non-transportable prey, these ants readily return to their nest and stimulate the exit of several recruits. This rudimentary form of recruitment, which is absent in the sympatric species C. rosenhaueri, is only employed when the prey is sufficiently close to the nest entrance (<1 m) and does not allow the food location to be communicated. Instead, C. floricola recruits search for the prey in all directions until they discover it and transport it cooperatively to their nest.

[1]  Norm Johnson,et al.  Cataglyphis floricola nov. sp. new species for the genus Cataglyphis Förster, 1850, (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) in the Iberian Peninsula. , 1993 .

[2]  L. Passera,et al.  Les fourmis: comportement, organisation sociale, évolution , 2005 .

[3]  J. Lachaud,et al.  Graded recruitment and hunting strategies linked to prey weight and size in the ponerine ant Ectatomma ruidum , 1997, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.

[4]  Elise Nowbahari,et al.  Habitat exploitation and intercolonial relationships in the ant Cataglyphis cursor (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). , 1990 .

[5]  X. Cerdá,et al.  Individual and collective foraging decisions: a field study of worker recruitment in the gypsy ant Aphaenogaster senilis , 2009, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.

[6]  J. Lachaud.  Recruitment by selective activation: an archaic type of mass recruitment in the ponerine ant (Ectatomma ruidum) , 1985 .

[7]  B. Hölldobler.  Recruitment behavior in Camponotus socius (Hym. Formicidae) , 1971, Zeitschrift für vergleichende Physiologie.

[8]  X. Cerdá,et al.  Prey Size Reverses the Outcome of Interference Interactions of Scavenger Ants , 1998 .

[9]  E. Hasegawa,et al.  Molecular phylogeny of two slave-making ants: Rossomyrmex and Polyergus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) , 2002 .

[10]  R Wehner,et al.  Path integration in desert ants, Cataglyphis fortis. , 1988, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[11]  Rodrigo Cogni,et al.  Recruitment Behavior During Foraging in the Neotropical Ant Gnamptogenys moelleri (Formicidae: Ponerinae): Does the Type of Food Matter? , 2004, Journal of Insect Behavior.

[12]  J. Traniello.  Foraging Strategies of Ants , 1989 .

[13]  T. Collett,et al.  Calibration of vector navigation in desert ants , 1999, Current Biology.

[14]  F. Ruano,et al.  Raid process, activity pattern and influence of abiotic conditions in the slave-making ant Rossomyrmex minuchae (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) , 1999, Insectes Sociaux.

[15]  F. Ruano,et al.  High surface temperatures select for individual foraging in ants , 2000 .

[16]  J. Traniello.  Population Structure and Social Organization in the Primitive Ant Amblyopone Pallipes (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) , 1982 .

[17]  Rüdiger Wehner,et al.  Ant odometry in the third dimension , 2001, Nature.

[18]  Markus Knaden,et al.  Smells like home: Desert ants, Cataglyphis fortis, use olfactory landmarks to pinpoint the nest , 2009, Frontiers in Zoology.

[19]  R. Matthews,et al.  Ants. , 1898, Science.

[20]  R. Wehner,et al.  Foraging strategies in individually searching ants, Cataglyphis bicolor (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) , 1983 .

[21]  X. Cerdá,et al.  Alternative strategies by thermophilic ants to cope with extreme heat: individual versus colony level traits , 2000 .

[22]  R. Wehner.  Desert ant navigation: how miniature brains solve complex tasks , 2003, Journal of Comparative Physiology A.

[23]  E. Wilson.  The Insect Societies , 1974 .

[24]  M. Carroll.  The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press , 1970 .

[25]  T. Wenseleers,et al.  Territorial Marking in the Desert Ant Cataglyphis niger: Does It Pay to Play Bourgeois? , 2004, Journal of Insect Behavior.

[26]  X. Cerdá,et al.  An unusual ant diet:Cataglyphis floricola feeding on petals , 1996, Insectes Sociaux.

[27]  C. Urbani.  The diversity and evolution of recruitment behaviour in ants, with a discussion of the usefulness of parsimony criteria in the reconstruction of evolutionary histories , 1993, Insectes Sociaux.

[28]  J. Traniello.  Comparative foraging ecology of north temperate ants: The role of worker size and cooperative foraging in prey selection , 1987, Insectes Sociaux.

[29]  G. Beugnon,et al.  Colony structure and foraging behavior in the tropical formicine ant, Gigantiops destructor , 2001, Insectes Sociaux.