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Brood adoption in the leaf-cutting ant Acromyrmex echinatior: adaptation or recognition noise?

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Abstract

The ability to discriminate between nestmates and non-nestmates is an important prerequisite for the evolution of eusociality. Indeed, social insect workers are typically able to discriminate between nestmate and non-nestmate workers. Adult non-nestmate workers are readily detected and rejected from the colony. Whether social insects can discriminate between nestmate and non-nestmate brood, however, is less clear. Here, we show that workers of the leaf-cutting ant Acromyrmex echinatior discriminate between nestmate and non-nestmate brood, and among brood of different stages. Initially, non-nestmate brood is attacked, but it is adopted after a delay. Adoption could occur due to inefficiency of the recognition system, or it could be adaptive because it is an inexpensive way to increase the workforce. Our results suggest that brood adoption may occur accidentally. We also report how workers replace fungal hyphae on the brood’s surface before transporting the brood into their fungus garden.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Marie Curie Excellence Grant CODICES (EXT-CT-2004-014202) and partly by a ‘‘Freia grant’’ from the Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen, both assigned to PdE. BF was supported by the ERASMUS programme, and VN by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). We thank the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) and the Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente (ANAM) for permission to work in Panama, and the Danish Natural Science Research Council for financial support. The authors also thank Hermógenes Fernández-Marín for fruitful discussions, all the members of the Centre for Social Evolution, University of Copenhagen, for a stimulating working environment, and Alain Lenoir and one anonymous referee for their helpful comments on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Social Evolution, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, 2100, Copenhagen E, Denmark

    B. Fouks, P. d’Ettorre & V. Nehring

  2. AG Molecular Ecology, Martin-Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, Hoher Weg 4, 06099, Halle, Germany

    B. Fouks

  3. Laboratory of Experimental and Comparative Ethology (LEEC), University of Paris, 13, 99 av. J.B. Clément, 93430, Villetaneuse, France

    P. d’Ettorre

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  1. B. Fouks
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  3. V. Nehring
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Correspondence to V. Nehring.

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Fouks, B., d’Ettorre, P. & Nehring, V. Brood adoption in the leaf-cutting ant Acromyrmex echinatior: adaptation or recognition noise?. Insect. Soc. 58, 479–485 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00040-011-0167-9

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