Foraging ecology of an Australian salt-pan desert ant (genus Melophorus)

2012 ◽  
Vol 60 (5) ◽  
pp. 311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Schultheiss ◽  
Sebastian Schwarz ◽  
Ken Cheng ◽  
Rüdiger Wehner
Keyword(s):  
Foraging Ecology ◽  
Late Summer ◽  
Similar Species ◽  
Plant Materials ◽  
Cluttered Environments ◽  
Desert Ant ◽  
Salt Pan ◽  
Celestial Compass ◽  
Summer Study ◽  
Melophorus Bagoti

Over the expanse of the salt lakes of the Lake Eyre basin lives a species of ant of the genus Melophorus (as yet unnamed), both on the edges of the salt-pan and on the salt-pan itself. Most of the foragers are small (~3.0–5.0 mm), but ~10% of the ants seen foraging are much larger (~7.0 mm) and may form a soldier caste. Foragers are thermophilic and show diurnal activity, displaying a single-peaked activity profile across the day, with activity time limited to 2–6 h at most each day (during the late-summer study period, 28 February to 28 March 2012). They forage largely for dead arthropods, but also occasionally bring home plant materials. Foraging success (not considering possible liquid food intake) is ~20%, resembling the success rate of their congener Melophorus bagoti, which inhabits cluttered environments. When displaced with food from a feeder, the ants head systematically and precisely in the feeder-to-nest direction, thus exhibiting path integration abilities involving celestial compass cues. The study of this species provides an interesting comparative perspective in contrasting desert ants of the same genus and thus genetic heritage inhabiting habitats differing in complexity of panoramic terrestrial cues as well as comparing ecologically similar species inhabiting the same type of habitat (in the present case, salt-pans) but differing in their phylogenetic relationships.

scholarly journals Ocelli contribute to the encoding of celestial compass information in the Australian desert ant Melophorus bagoti

2011 ◽  
Vol 214 (6) ◽  
pp. 901-906 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Schwarz ◽  
L. Albert ◽  
A. Wystrach ◽  
K. Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Desert Ant ◽  
Celestial Compass ◽  
Melophorus Bagoti

Foraging ecology of the thermophilic Australian desert ant, Melophorus bagoti

2005 ◽  
Vol 53 (5) ◽  
pp. 301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Muser ◽  
Stefan Sommer ◽  
Harald Wolf ◽  
Rüdiger Wehner
Keyword(s):  
Foraging Ecology ◽  
Soil Surface ◽  
Foraging Efficiency ◽  
Foraging Activity ◽  
Foraging Success ◽  
Success Rates ◽  
Desert Ant ◽  
Foraging Site ◽  
Intercolony Aggression ◽  
Melophorus Bagoti

The paper describes the foraging ecology of the Australian desert ant, Melophorus bagoti, a thermophilic, diurnal scavenger with ground-nesting colonies. Overlapping foraging ranges, low foraging success rates, and intercolony aggression suggest intense competition for food between colonies. Daily foraging starts when soil surface temperatures approach 50°C. Workers search individually and collect predominantly dead insects. Occasionally, they consume plant secretions. Foraging activity peaks on mid-summer days. On cloudy days the onset of foraging is delayed, and the foraging activity is low. Ants do not forage on rainy days. Typically, workers start their above-ground activities with a few short exploration runs. On average, they perform one foraging run on the first day of their outdoor lives. With age they gradually increase foraging site fidelity and daily foraging effort. Individual foraging efficiency is low at the beginning but grows with experience. However, due to a high mortality rate and, hence, high forager turnover, average rates of foraging success for a colony remain rather low. The outdoor activity gradually decreases towards the end of summer and appears to stop completely during the winter months.

Multiple sources of celestial compass information in the Central Australian desert ant Melophorus bagoti

2014 ◽  
Vol 200 (6) ◽  
pp. 591-601 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antoine Wystrach ◽  
Sebastian Schwarz ◽  
Patrick Schultheiss ◽  
Alice Baniel ◽  
Ken Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Desert Ant ◽  
Celestial Compass ◽  
Melophorus Bagoti

scholarly journals Accuracy and spread of nest search behaviour in the Saharan silver ant, Cataglyphis bombycina, and in the salt pan species, Cataglyphis fortis

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 1107-1117
Author(s):  
Sarah Pfeffer ◽  
Verena Wahl ◽  
Harald Wolf
Keyword(s):  
Sand Dune ◽  
Dune Sand ◽  
Search Behaviour ◽  
Feeding Site ◽  
Desert Ant ◽  
Salt Pan ◽  
Tripod Gait ◽  
Nest Search ◽  
Hard Floor ◽  
Cataglyphis Fortis

AbstractDesert ants of the genus Cataglyphis are renowned for their navigation abilities, especially for their beeline homing after meandering foraging excursions reaching several hundreds of meters in length. A spiralling nest search is performed when an ant misses the nest entrance upon completing its homebound travel. We examined the nest search behaviours of two desert ant species dwelling in different habitats—Cataglyphis bombycina living in the dunes of the Sahara and Cataglyphis fortis found in the salt pans of North Africa. The two species show distinct differences in walking behaviour. C. bombycina performs a strict tripod gait with pronounced aerial phases, high stride frequencies, and extremely brief ground contact times. In view of these peculiarities and the yielding sand dune substrate, we hypothesised that homing accuracy, and namely distance measurement by stride integration, should be lower in C. bombycina, compared to the well-studied C. fortis with less specialised walking behaviour. We tested this hypothesis in ants’ homebound runs from a feeding site in a linear channel setup. Surprisingly, the accuracies of nest searches were similar in the two ant species, and search accuracy was also independent of the walking substrate, soft dune sand or a hard floor. The spread of the nest search, by contrast, differed significantly between the two species, C. bombycina exhibiting a larger search spread. This may be interpreted as an increased path integration uncertainty due to the above locomotor specialisations, or as a compensation strategy accounting for the silver ants’ particular environmental and behavioural situation.

Traveling in clutter: Navigation in the Central Australian desert ant Melophorus bagoti

2009 ◽  
Vol 80 (3) ◽  
pp. 261-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken Cheng ◽  
Ajay Narendra ◽  
Stefan Sommer ◽  
Rüdiger Wehner
Keyword(s):  
Desert Ant ◽  
Melophorus Bagoti

Oceili: A Celestial Compass in the Desert Ant Cataglyphis

Science ◽  
1985 ◽  
Vol 228 (4696) ◽  
pp. 192-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. FENT ◽  
R. WEHNER
Keyword(s):  
Desert Ant ◽  
Celestial Compass

scholarly journals Nest Relocation and Colony Founding in the Australian Desert Ant,Melophorus bagotiLubbock (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

2010 ◽  
Vol 2010 ◽  
pp. 1-4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Schultheiss ◽  
Sebastian Schwarz ◽  
Antoine Wystrach
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Colony Founding ◽  
Circumstantial Evidence ◽  
Nest Relocation ◽  
Desert Ants ◽  
Desert Ant ◽  
Multiple Matings ◽  
Trail Laying ◽  
Mating Flights ◽  
Melophorus Bagoti

Even after years of research on navigation in the Red Honey Ant,Melophorus bagoti, much of its life history remains elusive. Here, we present observations on nest relocation and the reproductive and founding stages of colonies. Nest relocation is possibly aided by trail laying behaviour, which is highly unusual for solitary foraging desert ants. Reproduction occurs in synchronised mating flights, which are probably triggered by rain. Queens may engage in multiple matings, and there is circumstantial evidence that males are chemically attracted to queens. After the mating flight, the queens found new colonies independently and singly. Excavation of these founding colonies reveals first insights into their structure.

scholarly journals Allometry in desert ant locomotion (Cataglyphis albicans and Cataglyphis bicolor) – does body size matter?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna Tross ◽  
Harald Wolf ◽  
Sarah Elisabeth Pfeffer
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Walking Speed ◽  
The Body ◽  
Size Spectrum ◽  
Similar Species ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Desert Ant ◽  
Walking Speeds ◽  
Size Matter ◽  
Cataglyphis Bicolor

Desert ants show a large range of adaptations to their habitats. They can reach extremely high running speeds, for example, to shorten heat stress during foraging trips. It has recently been examined how fast walking speeds are achieved in different desert ant species. It is intriguing in this context that some species exhibit distinct intraspecific size differences. We therefore performed a complete locomotion analysis over the entire size spectrum of the species Cataglyphis bicolor, and we compared this intraspecific data set with that of the allometrically similar species Cataglyphis albicans. Emphasis was on the allometry of locomotion: we considered the body size of each animal and analysed the data in terms of relative walking speed. Body size was observed to affect walking parameters, gait patterns and phase relations in terms of absolute walking speed. Unexpectedly, on a relative scale, all ants tended to show the same overall locomotion strategy at slow walking speeds, and significant differences occurred only between C. albicans and C. bicolor at high walking speeds. Our analysis revealed that C. bicolor ants use the same overall strategy across all body sizes, with small ants reaching the highest walking speeds (up to 80 body lengths s−1) by increasing their stride lengths and incorporating aerial phases. By comparison, C. albicans reached high walking speeds mainly by a high synchrony of leg movement, lower swing phase durations and higher stride frequencies ranging up to 40 Hz.

scholarly journals Role of the pheromone for orientation in the group foraging ant, Veromessor pergandei

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cody A Freas ◽  
Marcia L Spetch
Keyword(s):  
Vector State ◽  
Group Foraging ◽  
Directional Information ◽  
Desert Ant ◽  
Correct Orientation ◽  
Celestial Compass ◽  
Vector Orientation ◽  
Veromessor Pergandei ◽  
Path Integrator

Role of the pheromone for orientation in the group foraging ant, Veromessor pergandei Navigation is comprised of a variety of strategies which rely on multiple external cues to shape a navigator’s behavioral output. An additional navigational challenge is coping with forces such as wind and water currents that push navigators off-course. Here, we explore the cue interactions that dictate orientation and foragers’ ability to counter course altering rotational changes in the desert ant, Veromessor pergandei. We found a cross sensory interaction between the pheromone cue and the path integrator underlies correct orientation during the inbound journey. The celestial compass provides directional information while the presence of the trail pheromone acts as a critical context cue, triggering distinct behavioral responses (vector orientation, search and backtracking). A particularly interesting interaction occurs between the pheromone and the forager’s vector state. While exposed to the pheromone, foragers orient to the vector direction regardless of vector state, while in the pheromone’s absence the current vector triggers the switch between behaviors. Such interactions maximize the foragers’ return to the nest and inhibit movement off the trail. Finally, our manipulations continuously pushed foragers away from their desired heading, yet foragers were highly proficient at counteracting these changes, steering to maintain a correct heading even at rotational speeds of ~40°/s.

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