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Behavioral responses of acacia ants correlate with age and location on the host plant

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Abstract

In social insects, worker specialization in location-related tasks could occur if they return to the same location over time. Location and task fidelity was tested in the acacia ants Pseudomyrmex spinicola, which nest inside the swollen spines of the tree, and all workers enter the spines at night and during rain. Workers were marked and followed at three locations: on the leaves, tree trunk, and ground near the plant. Behavioral tests were performed, testing the reactions of marked ants toward the food used to feed the larvae (Beltian Bodies, “BB”), and to brood outside the spines. Marked ants and ants of known age were tested for responses to disturbance of the spines. Ants were more likely to occur in the location where they were originally marked. Trunk-marked ants discarded the BB when it had a foliole fragment attached to it, while leaf-marked ants carried it to the spine. Trunk-marked ants left larvae and exited from disturbed spines more frequently than other ants. Leaf-marked ants carried larvae and pupae more often than trunk-marked ants. Spine-marked ants left pupae more often than trunk- or leaf-marked ants. When considering age, older ants reacted aggressively when threatened, whereas younger ants protected the brood. However, younger ants reacted more aggressively when older ants were absent, and older ants were more aggressive in the presence of larvae. In sum, the spatial segregation of the ants coincided with behavioral differences, and different behavioral responses are related to the age of the ant.

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Acknowledgments

I dedicate this work to Rodolfo Amador and Sodelba Vargas. I thank Frank Joyce, Gilbert Barrantes, and especially William Eberhard for valuable comments on previous versions of the manuscript; W. Eberhard and G. Barrantes for long discussions about the results; William Wcislo and other members of the Wcislo Lab for support at STRI; Heil Martin for information about nectar composition; the staff at Palo Verde for their support, especially Romelio Campos; Maga Gei for feeding the ants in my absence; and the staff at Parque Natural Metropolitano. The Don and Beverly Stone Fund and the Glaxo Fund managed by the Organization for Tropical Studies and a Short Term Fellowship from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute funded this investigation. Research was conducted under scientific permit no. 74-2007 from the MINAE and SE/A-709 from the ANAM, in accordance with the laws of the Republic of Costa Rica and Panamá.

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  1. S. Amador-Vargas

    Present address: Patterson Laboratories, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station #C0900, Austin, TX, 78712, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidad de Costa Rica, San Jose, Costa Rica

    S. Amador-Vargas

  2. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama, Panama

    S. Amador-Vargas

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  1. S. Amador-Vargas
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Correspondence to S. Amador-Vargas.

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Amador-Vargas, S. Behavioral responses of acacia ants correlate with age and location on the host plant. Insect. Soc. 59, 341–350 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00040-012-0226-x

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