Fast food in ant communities: how competing species find resources

• Published in: Oecologia Vol. 167; no. 1; pp. 229 - 240
• Main Authors: Pearce-Duvet, Jessica M. C., Moyano, Martin, Adler, Frederick R., Feener, Donald H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer 01-09-2011; Springer-Verlag; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Animal and plant ecology; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Animals; Ants; Appetitive Behavior; Arizona; Biological and medical sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Communities; COMMUNITY ECOLOGY; Community ecology - Original Paper; Competitive Behavior; Convenience foods; Desert insects; Desiccation; Ecological competition; Ecology; Ecosystem; Fast food; Feeding Behavior; Food resources; Food supply; Forage; Foraging; Foraging behavior; Formicidae; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects; Humidity; Hydrology/Water Resources; Insect behavior; Insect colonies; Insect communities; Insect ecology; Life Sciences; Plant Sciences; Restaurant industry; Social insects; Species Specificity; Texas; Texas; Arizona; Forager discovery capacity; Community ecology; Formicidae; Resource discovery; Forager density; Insecta; Ecology; Social insect; Formicoidea; Density; Feeding; Arthropoda; Hymenoptera; Invertebrata; Community; Aculeata
• ISSN: 0029-8549; 1432-1939
• DOI: 10.1007/s00442-011-1982-4

An understanding of foraging behavior is crucial to understanding higher level community dynamics; in particular, there is a lack of information about how different species discover food resources. We examined the effect of forager number and forager discovery capacity on food discovery in two disparate temperate ant communities, located in Texas and Arizona. We defined forager discovery capacity as the per capita rate of resource discovery, or how quickly individual ants arrived at resources. In general, resources were discovered more quickly when more foragers were present; this was true both within communities, where species identity was ignored, as well as within species. This pattern suggests that resource discovery is a matter of random processes, with ants essentially bumping into resources at a rate mediated by their abundance. In contrast, species that were better discoverers, as defined by the proportion of resources discovered first, did not have higher numbers of mean foragers. Instead, both mean forager number and mean forager discovery capacity determined discovery success. The Texas species used both forager number and capacity, whereas the Arizona species used only forager capacity. There was a negative correlation between a species' prevalence in the environment and the discovery capacity of its foragers, suggesting that a given species cannot exploit both high numbers and high discovery capacity as a strategy. These results highlight that while forager number is crucial to determining time to discovery at the community level and within species, individual forager characteristics influence the outcome of exploitative competition in ant communities.