title: Triggering and persistence of trail-laying in foragers of the ant Lasius niger.
abstract: In the ant Lasius niger, the ability to ingest their own desired volume is the key criterion that rules the recruiting behaviour of scouts. This volume acts as a threshold triggering the trail-laying response of foragers. In this paper, we show that this desired volume is specific to each individual and is kept constant over successive trips to a food source. This individual specificity contrasts with the variability of all individual desired volumes within the colony. In this study, it is also shown that, among L. niger foragers, 14% never participate in the formation of the chemical pathway and never lay a trail over successive trips. Among the others foragers, interindividual differences in the persistence of trail-laying behaviour over successive trips are observed but do not rely on an individual specialisation, in which some ants would lay a trail more frequently and persistently than other scouts. We discuss how an individual in the foraging behaviour can play an essential role in the regulation of food retrieval dynamics.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Lutte Biologique et Ecologie Spatiale, Science Department, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Avenue F.D. Roosevelt 50, Bruxelles B-1050, Belgium. amailleu@ulb.ac.be
authors.forename: Anne-Catherine
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Mailleux
authors.forename: Claire
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Detrain
authors.forename: Jean-Louis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Deneubourg
mesh_terms: D000819:Animal Communication; D000818:Animals; D001000:Ants / Q000502:physiology*; D001530:Belgium; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D006608:Hierarchy, Social; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology; D010675:Pheromones / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D010675:Pheromones