Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• McGlynn, Terrence P.
• Carr, Ryan A.
• Carson, Johnny H.
• Buma, Johnathan

Titel

Frequent nest relocation in the ant Aphaenogaster araneoides: resources, competition, and natural enemies

Ist Teil von

• Oikos, 2004-09, Vol.106 (3), p.611-621

Ort / Verlag

Copenhagen: Munksgaard International Publishers

Erscheinungsjahr

2004

Quelle

Wiley-Blackwell Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Sessile and vagile organisms differ from one another in some fundamental ways, including methods of resource acquisition and competition. Ant colonies are typically studied as sessile entities, even though a large fraction of ant species frequently relocate their nests in the course of their life history. Little is known about the causes and consequences of nest relocation, but it is likely that the costs and benefits of relocation are driven by nest quality, neighborhood competition, or resource availability. In this paper, we document several cycles of nest relocation in a population of the Central American ant Aphaenogaster araneoides. In our first experiment, we tracked the pattern of relocation, testing whether environmental characteristics and colony demography were associated with relocation behavior. In our second experiment, we manipulated resource availability by adding or subtracting leaf litter, which is known to predict colony growth. We found that colonies relocated their nests once per week on average and colonies often reoccupied nests from which they had once emigrated. Larger colonies relocated more frequently than smaller colonies, and quickly growing colonies utilized a greater number of nests within their home range compared to slowly growing colonies. Relocation events were most likely to occur in periods when vapor pressure deficits were greatest. Nearest neighbor distance and other measures of environmental conditions were not associated with relocation behavior and there was no significant effect of litter removal or supplementation. We found evidence that multiple natural enemies attacked A. araneoides colonies. Based on the demographic correlates of relocation and our rejection of other plausible hypotheses, we propose that nest relocation is driven by the escape from natural enemies.