NDLI: Group recruitment in a thermophilic desert ant, Ocymyrmex robustior

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Sommer, Stefan Weibel, Denise Blaser, Nicole Furrer, Anna Wenzler, Nadine E. Rössler, Wolfgang Wehner, Rüdiger
Copyright Year	2013
Abstract	Thermophilic desert ants—Cataglyphis, Ocymyrmex, and Melophorus species inhabiting the arid zones of the Palaearctic region, southern Africa and central Australia, respectively—are solitary foragers, which have been considered to lack any kind of chemical recruitment. Here we show that besides mainly employing the solitary mode of food retrieval Ocymyrmex robustior regularly exhibits group recruitment to food patches that cannot be exploited individually. Running at high speed to recruitment sites that may be more than 60 m apart from the nest a leading ant, the recruiter, is followed by a loose and often quite dispersed group of usually 2–7 recruits, which often overtake the leader, or may lose contact, fall back and return to the nest. As video recordings show the leader, while continually keeping her gaster in a downward position, intermittently touches the surface of the ground with the tip of the gaster most likely depositing a volatile pheromone signal. These recruitment events occur during the entire diurnal activity period of the Ocymyrmex foragers, that is, even at surface temperatures of more than 60 °C. They may provide promising experimental paradigms for studying the interplay of orientation by chemical signals and path integration as well as other visual guidance routines.
Starting Page	711
Ending Page	722
Page Count	12
File Format	PDF
ISSN	03407594
Journal	Journal of Comparative Physiology A
Volume Number	199
Issue Number	8
e-ISSN	14321351
Language	English
Publisher	Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Publisher Date	2013-06-08
Publisher Place	Berlin, Heidelberg
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Desert ants Recruitment Ocymyrmex Path integration Solitary foraging Animal Physiology Neurosciences Zoology
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Physiology Behavioral Neuroscience Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

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1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
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Egocentric and geocentric navigation during extremely long foraging paths of desert ants

Landmark cues can change the motivational state of desert ant foragers

Steering intermediate courses: desert ants combine information from various navigational routines

Desert ants: is active locomotion a prerequisite for path integration?

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Views, landmarks, and routes: how do desert ants negotiate an obstacle course?

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Group recruitment in a thermophilic desert ant, Ocymyrmex robustior

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