Abstract
Necrophoresis (removal of nest-mate corpses) was studied in two Indian ant species, Camponotus compressus (fam. Formicinae) and Diacamma vagans (fam. Ponerinae), collected from suburbs of Calcutta (now Kolkata), India. Small groups of worker ants were maintained in formicaria in order to study “hard-wired” behaviour patterns in the absence of any stimulus from gynecoids, eggs, larvae etc. C. camponotus regularly showed a site specific disposal area (cemetery) for nest-mate corpses but they chose a preliminary and a second, a more permanent site which was shifted later while the primary site remained unaltered. In contrast, these ants formed no midden (a pile of refuse) but removed remnants of food only to slight distances in a random fashion and those refuse materials were never carried to the cemetery site. To our knowledge, the double cemetery site is a new record. D. vagans, on the other hand, established neither a cemetery nor a midden. They removed nest-mate corpses again and again to different directions and distances. As many as twelve removals of a single corpse were recorded in 48 hrs time period. Food remnants were removed to slight distances in different directions. Both the ant species treated differentially the nest-mate corpses and food refuse.
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Banik, S., Biswas, S., Karmakar, R. et al. Necrophoresis in two Indian ant species, Camponotus compressus (Fabricius) and Diacamma vagans (Smith) (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Proc Zool Soc 63, 87–91 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12595-010-0012-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12595-010-0012-6