Tomb evaders: house-hunting hygiene in ants.
House-hunting ants avoid otherwise excellent potential nest sites that contain dead ants which may pose risks from poor hygiene. This discovery adds another category to the exceptionally long list of nest site attributes that ants evaluate. It further indicates the importance of disease as a selection pressure on social insects.
Franks
Nigel R
NR
Centre for Behavioural Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK. nigel.franks@bristol.ac.uk
Hooper
James
J
Webb
Catherine
C
Dornhaus
Anna
A
D000818:Animals; D001000:Ants; D002102:Cadaver; D018562:Disease Transmission, Infectious; D009425:Nesting Behavior