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Trail laying during tandem-running recruitment in the ant Temnothorax albipennis

Basari, Norasmah; Laird-Hopkins, Benita C.; Sendova-Franks, Ana B.; Franks, Nigel R.

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Authors

Norasmah Basari

Benita C. Laird-Hopkins

Ana Sendova-Franks Ana.Sendova-Franks@uwe.ac.uk
Associate Professor in Biometry & Animal Behaviour

Nigel R. Franks



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. © 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

Citation

Basari, N., Laird-Hopkins, B. C., Sendova-Franks, A. B., & Franks, N. R. (2014). Trail laying during tandem-running recruitment in the ant Temnothorax albipennis. Naturwissenschaften, 101(7), 549-556. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-014-1191-1

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Jan 1, 2014
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Naturwissenschaften
Print ISSN 0028-1042
Publisher Springer Verlag
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 101
Issue 7
Pages 549-556
DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-014-1191-1
Keywords trail laying, ants, Temnothorax albipennis
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/815136
Publisher URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00114-014-1191-1
Additional Information Additional Information : The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00114-014-1191-1

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