1. Trail laying during tandem-running recruitment in the ant Temnothorax albipennis
- Author
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Norasmah Basari, Benita C Laird-Hopkins, Ana B. Sendova-Franks, and Nigel R. Franks
- Subjects
biology ,Ants ,Ecology ,Computer science ,fungi ,Real-time computing ,food and beverages ,General Medicine ,biochemical phenomena, metabolism, and nutrition ,biology.organism_classification ,ANT ,Nesting Behavior ,Running ,Animal Communication ,Nest ,behavior and behavior mechanisms ,Animals ,Temnothorax albipennis ,Animal communication ,Nest site ,reproductive and urinary physiology ,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics ,Tandem running - Abstract
Tandem running is a recruitment strategy whereby one ant leads a single naïve nest mate to a resource. While tandem running progresses towards the goal, the leader ant and the follower ant maintain contact mainly by tactile signals. In this paper, we investigated whether they also deposit chemical signals on the ground during tandem running. We filmed tandem-running ants and analysed the position of the gasters of leaders and followers. Our results show that leader ants are more likely to press their gasters down to the substrate compared to follower ants, single ants and transporter ants. Forward tandem-run leaders (those moving towards a new nest site) performed such trail-marking procedures three times more often than reverse tandem leaders (those moving towards an old nest site). That leader ants marked the trails more often during forward tandem runs may suggest that it is more important to maintain the bond with the follower ant on forward tandem runs than on reverse tandem runs. Marked trails on the ground may serve as a safety line that improves both the efficiency of tandem runs and their completion rates.
- Published
- 2014