title: Tomb evaders: house-hunting hygiene in ants.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Behavioural Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK. nigel.franks@bristol.ac.uk
authors.forename: Nigel R
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Franks
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hooper
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Webb
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dornhaus
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001000:Ants; D002102:Cadaver; D018562:Disease Transmission, Infectious; D009425:Nesting Behavior