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Energy use and allocation in the Florida harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex badius: are stored seeds a buffer?

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Abstract

Limitation of a necessary resource can affect an organism’s investment into growth and reproduction. Pogonomyrmex harvester ants store vast quantities of seeds in their nests that are thought to buffer the ants when external resources are not available. This research uses externally controlled food availability to examine how resource shortage affects colony investment, resource use, and resource distribution within the nest. Colonies were either starved or supplemented with resources for 2 months, beginning at the onset of reproductive investment and ending immediately before nuptial flights. Fed colonies invested more in overall production, proportionally more in reproduction relative to growth and in female reproductives relative to males. Stored seeds in starved colonies did not buffer production in this study. However, worker fat reserves were depleted in starved colonies, indicating that fat reserves fuel the spring bout of production. In starved colonies, worker fat reserves were depleted evenly throughout the nest, distributing the burden of starvation on all workers regardless of caste and age. A reallocation of diploid eggs into female workers rather than reproductives best explains the observed change in sex ratio investment between treatments. The redistribution of resources into growth relative to reproduction in starved colonies is consistent with life history theory for long-lived organisms, switching from current to future reproduction when resources are scarce.

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Acknowledgments

Several anonymous reviewers and editors greatly improved draft after draft of this manuscript; for their insights and patience, I am very grateful. I am very thankful to D. Drury, M. Endries, J. Miller, A. Smith, M. Tomaiuolo, and E. Trudeau for help in colony excavations. E. Condon helped in sample processing and fat extractions. The Suarez lab, Caceres lab and Social Insect Reading Group at UIUC, Tschinkel lab at FSU, and M. Streepey provided equipment or helpful comments. PEEB at UIUC helped with funding. I am especially appreciative of the Leon Co. Sheriffs and Crime Scene Unit for understanding that I was not actually “digging graves in the forest.” All portions of this research complied with the laws of the USA.

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  1. Program in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Illinois, 515 Morrill Hall, 505 S. Goodwin Ave., Urbana, IL, 61801, USA

    Christopher R. Smith

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Correspondence to Christopher R. Smith.

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Communicated by L. Keller

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Smith, C.R. Energy use and allocation in the Florida harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex badius: are stored seeds a buffer?. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 61, 1479–1487 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-007-0380-8

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