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A Convenient Trip: an Analysis of the Impact of Hitchhiker Ants on Forager Transport Rates

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Abstract

During foraging, leaf-cutting ant workers of different size classes perform various tasks along foraging trails. Commonly, small workers called hitchhikers climb on leaf fragments imposing an extra transport cost, so their presence is thought to reduce the individual foraging performance. There are four main hypotheses which may explain the occurrence of hitchhikers and a different behavioral act related to their role can be predicted for each. Hitchhiker behavior was observed considering these hypotheses and the effect of the hitchhikers on the walking speed and transport rate of foragers was evaluated. The behavioral registers were obtained from 1371 hitchhikers on foraging trails of Acromyrmex subterraneus subterraneus nests in the field. To verify the influence of hitchhikers on walking speed and transport rate, 239 foragers with hitchhikers and 250 foragers transporting only leaf fragments were analyzed. The walking speed, burden and transport rate of each forager were calculated. Data indicated not only that hitchhikers are vigilant but that they remain motionless on the leaf fragment probably in order to reduce the impact of their presence for the loaded forager. The impact of their presence is verified through walking speed reduction but as they ride preferentially on larger workers who transport larger leaf fragments, there are no losses in the individual transport rate. The transporter selection made by the hitchhiker ensures at the same time enhanced protection against phorid parasitoids and the maintenance of the leaf transport rate.

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Acknowledgments

From I.N. Hastenreiter, T.A.Sales and L.F.Ribeiro thanks go to Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) and Pró-Reitoria de Pesquisa (Propesq) – UFJF for a grant. From J.F.S. Lopes thanks go to Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) for grant and financial support (307335/2009-7 and 569962/2008-0). The authors thank Dr. Kleber Del-Claro and two anonymous reviewers whose comments improved the manuscript, Dr. Vincent Fourcassié and Dra. Jane Azevedo da Silva for statistical analysis advice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil

    Isabel Neto Hastenreiter, Tatiane Archanjo de Sales & Juliane Floriano Santos Lopes

  2. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Biológicas – Comportamento e Biologia Animal, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Rua José Lourenço Kelmer, s/n - Campus Universitário, Bairro Martelos, Juiz de Fora, MG, 36036-900, Brazil

    Isabel Neto Hastenreiter, Tatiane Archanjo de Sales, Laila Fieto Ribeiro & Juliane Floriano Santos Lopes

  3. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Entomologia – Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Juiz de Fora, Brazil

    Laila Fieto Ribeiro

Authors
  1. Isabel Neto Hastenreiter
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  2. Tatiane Archanjo de Sales
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  3. Laila Fieto Ribeiro
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  4. Juliane Floriano Santos Lopes
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Correspondence to Isabel Neto Hastenreiter.

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Hastenreiter, I.N., de Sales, T.A., Ribeiro, L.F. et al. A Convenient Trip: an Analysis of the Impact of Hitchhiker Ants on Forager Transport Rates. J Insect Behav 29, 37–47 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10905-015-9540-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10905-015-9540-2

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