title: The cavity-nest antTemnothorax crassispinusprefers larger nests.
abstract: Colonies of the antTemnothorax crassispinusinhabit mostly cavities in wood and hollow acorns. Typically in the field, nest sites that can be used by the ant are a limited resource. In a field experiment, it was investigated whether the ants prefer a specific size of nest, when different ones are available. In July 2011, a total of 160 artificial nests were placed in a beech-pine forest. Four artificial nests (pieces of wood with volume cavities, ca 415, 605, 730, and 980 mm3, respectively) were located on each square meter of the experimental plot. One year later, shortly before the emergence of new sexuals, the nests were collected. In July 2012, colonies inhabited more frequently bigger nests. Among queenright colonies, the ones which inhabited bigger nests had more workers. However, there was no relationship between volume of nest and number of workers for queenless colonies. Queenright colonies from bigger nests produced more sexual individuals, but there was no correlation between number of workers and sex allocation ratio, or between volume of nest and sex allocation ratio. In a laboratory experiment where ant colonies were kept in 470 and 860 mm3nests, larger colonies allocated more energy to produce sexual individuals. The results of this study show the selectivity ofT. crassispinusants regarding the size of nest cavity, and that the nest volume has an impact on life history parameters.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Evolution and Animal Ecology, Department of Biosystematics, Opole University, Oleska 22, 45-052 Opole, Poland.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mitrus
keywords: Colony size; Nest choice; Sex allocation ratio