Regulatory Mechanisms of Foraging Strategies and Nutrient Dynamics in Generalist Ant Colonies

Ant colonies are groups of highly related individuals self-organized through reproductive division of labor. While some reproduce, others take care of the young and forage for nutrients outside their nest. With around 16 000 species, ants show a diverse array of foraging strategies to maximize colony growth and reproduction. An ant colony’s foraging strategy is based on individual decisions of foragers informed by interactions among colony members and with the environment. In this dissertation, I study three different aspects of ant foraging. 1) How foragers use experience to behaviorally specialize in food retrieval strategies. 2) How foragers regulate their nutrient harvest to sustain colony physiological demands, and 3) how individuals distribute foraged nutrients among all colony members. I show that foragers of the neotropical ant Ectatomma ruidum use positive feedback, despite experiencing aggressive interactions, to behaviorally specialize in food theft from conspecific nests. I also describe how two North American seed disperser ants (Aphaenogaster rudis and Aphaenogaster picea) achieve different activity rates and low temperature tolerances by harvesting different proportions of protein and carbohydrates. Lastly, I study how foragers of carpenter ant (Camponotus castaneus) colonies help in the distribution of carbohydrates among nestmates. By examining different mechanisms regulating the expression of foraging and nutritional strategies of ant colonies, this dissertation sheds light on the role that forager behavioral adaptations and individual’s decisions play on emergent colony properties and social homeostasis.

Author

• Meneses Ospina, Santiago

Language

• en

Keyword

• Social Insects
• Ants
• Behavioral specialization
• Nutritional Geometry
• Interaction Networks

Date created

• 2023

Type of Work

• Dissertation

License

• All rights reserved

Rights statement

• In Copyright

GW Unit

• Biological Sciences

Degree

• Ph.D.

Advisor

• Smith, Adam R.

Committee Member(s)

• Lill, John T.
• Powell, Scott

Persistent URL

•  https://scholarspace.library.gwu.edu/etd/kw52j8890