Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Cassidy, Steven T.
• Saadatmand, Kiana
• Gerena, Chelsea
• Zhu, Yinlu
• Gau, Alice
• Keiser, Carl N.

Titel

Social Parasite Exposure and Nest Hygiene in Acorn Ants

Ist Teil von

• Journal of insect behavior, 2023-03, Vol.36 (1), p.52-58

Ort / Verlag

New York: Springer US

Erscheinungsjahr

2023

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Antagonistic interactions impose pressures that can trigger shifts in defensive phenotypes. For instance, one natural enemy may activate defensive phenotypes that influence defenses that protect against other enemies. Socially parasitic ants ( Temnothorax americanus ) are both parasites and predators of other coevolved Temnothorax species, whose brood they either consume as prey or steal during raids to utilize as a work force in their own colonies. Since these social parasites impose a significant threat to host colonies, we explored whether exposing a T. americanus worker to T. curvispinosus host colonies could impact nest hygiene behavior, a component of collective disease defense. Specifically, we measured the latency to remove colony-mate corpses from the nest. We measured corpse removal twice before and twice after exposure to a T. americanus worker collected in sympatry to the focal host colonies. We found that simulating the initial stage of a scout raid had no effect on this measure of collective nest hygiene. These results indicate that some measures of social immunity may remain robust after a potentially stressful antagonistic interaction from a coevolved heterospecific.