Food transport in ants: Do Lasius niger foragers maximize their individual load?
The decision for a Lasius niger forager to lay a chemical trail and launch recruitment to a food source is governed by an internal individual threshold. The value of this threshold triggering chemical communication is not set by the maximal capacity of the crop. Actually, trail-laying ants are still able to drink additional food encountered on their homeward journey. The partial filling of the crop by trail-laying ants may be a means for the ants to shorten foraging trips and to speed up the information updating within the nest. Moreover, by partially filling their crop, foragers keep a potential for sampling resources and for tasting other encountered food sources.
Mailleux
Anne-Catherine
AC
Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium. amailleu@ulb.ac.be
Deneubourg
Jean-Louis
JL
Detrain
Claire
C
D000819:Animal Communication; D000818:Animals; D001000:Ants / Q000502:physiology*; D001070:Appetitive Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D004327:Drinking Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D005106:Exploratory Behavior; D005260:Female; D010675:Pheromones / Q000502:physiology; D012919:Social Behavior; D013997:Time Factors
D010675:Pheromones