Ant colonies maintain social homeostasis in the face of decreased density
Interactions lie at the heart of social organization, particularly in ant societies. Interaction rates are presumed to increase with density, but there is little empirical evidence for this. We manipulated density within carpenter ant colonies of the species Camponotus pennsylvanicus by quadrupling...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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eLife Sciences Publications Ltd
2019-05-01
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| Series: | eLife |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://elifesciences.org/articles/38473 |
| _version_ | 1811236907577769984 |
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| author | Andreas P Modlmeier Ewan Colman Ephraim M Hanks Ryan Bringenberg Shweta Bansal David P Hughes |
| author_facet | Andreas P Modlmeier Ewan Colman Ephraim M Hanks Ryan Bringenberg Shweta Bansal David P Hughes |
| author_sort | Andreas P Modlmeier |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Interactions lie at the heart of social organization, particularly in ant societies. Interaction rates are presumed to increase with density, but there is little empirical evidence for this. We manipulated density within carpenter ant colonies of the species Camponotus pennsylvanicus by quadrupling nest space and by manually tracking 6.9 million ant locations and over 3200 interactions to study the relationship between density, spatial organization and interaction rates. Colonies divided into distinct spatial regions on the basis of their underlying spatial organization and changed their movement patterns accordingly. Despite a reduction in both overall and local density, we did not find the expected concomitant reduction in interaction rates across all colonies. Instead, we found divergent effects across colonies. Our results highlight the remarkable organizational resilience of ant colonies to changes in density, which allows them to sustain two key basic colony life functions, that is food and information exchange, during environmental change. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T12:16:09Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e2a654cac62b4fa3b2158397dd49ec4c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2050-084X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T12:16:09Z |
| publishDate | 2019-05-01 |
| publisher | eLife Sciences Publications Ltd |
| record_format | Article |
| series | eLife |
| spelling | doaj.art-e2a654cac62b4fa3b2158397dd49ec4c2022-12-22T03:33:25ZengeLife Sciences Publications LtdeLife2050-084X2019-05-01810.7554/eLife.38473Ant colonies maintain social homeostasis in the face of decreased densityAndreas P Modlmeier0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3095-488XEwan Colman1Ephraim M Hanks2Ryan Bringenberg3Shweta Bansal4David P Hughes5Department of Entomology, College of Agricultural Sciences, Penn State University, State College, United StatesDepartment of Biology, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, United StatesDepartment of Statistics, Eberly College of Science, Penn State University, State College, United StatesDepartment of Entomology, College of Agricultural Sciences, Penn State University, State College, United StatesDepartment of Biology, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, United StatesDepartment of Entomology, College of Agricultural Sciences, Penn State University, State College, United States; Department of Biology, Eberly College of Science, Penn State University, State College, United StatesInteractions lie at the heart of social organization, particularly in ant societies. Interaction rates are presumed to increase with density, but there is little empirical evidence for this. We manipulated density within carpenter ant colonies of the species Camponotus pennsylvanicus by quadrupling nest space and by manually tracking 6.9 million ant locations and over 3200 interactions to study the relationship between density, spatial organization and interaction rates. Colonies divided into distinct spatial regions on the basis of their underlying spatial organization and changed their movement patterns accordingly. Despite a reduction in both overall and local density, we did not find the expected concomitant reduction in interaction rates across all colonies. Instead, we found divergent effects across colonies. Our results highlight the remarkable organizational resilience of ant colonies to changes in density, which allows them to sustain two key basic colony life functions, that is food and information exchange, during environmental change.https://elifesciences.org/articles/38473Camponotus pennsylvanicussociobiologysocial network analysisspatial statisticsinteractionsdensity |
| spellingShingle | Andreas P Modlmeier Ewan Colman Ephraim M Hanks Ryan Bringenberg Shweta Bansal David P Hughes Ant colonies maintain social homeostasis in the face of decreased density eLife Camponotus pennsylvanicus sociobiology social network analysis spatial statistics interactions density |
| title | Ant colonies maintain social homeostasis in the face of decreased density |
| title_full | Ant colonies maintain social homeostasis in the face of decreased density |
| title_fullStr | Ant colonies maintain social homeostasis in the face of decreased density |
| title_full_unstemmed | Ant colonies maintain social homeostasis in the face of decreased density |
| title_short | Ant colonies maintain social homeostasis in the face of decreased density |
| title_sort | ant colonies maintain social homeostasis in the face of decreased density |
| topic | Camponotus pennsylvanicus sociobiology social network analysis spatial statistics interactions density |
| url | https://elifesciences.org/articles/38473 |
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