Flooding causes destruction of shelter and disruption of activity in animals occupying subterranean nests. To ensure their survival organisms have evolved various responses to combat this problem. In this study we examine the response of an Indian ant, Diacamma indicum, to nest flooding during the monsoon season. Based on characterization of nest location, architecture and the response of these ants to different levels of flooding in their natural habitat as well as in the laboratory, we infer that they exhibit a dual response. On the one hand, the challenges presented by monsoon are dealt with by occupying shallow nests and modifying the entrance with decorations and soil mounds. On the other hand, inundated nests are evacuated and the ants occupy shelters at higher elevations. We conclude that focused studies of the monsoon biology of species that dwell in such climatic conditions may help us appreciate how organisms deal with, and adapt to, extreme seasonal changes.

Animals live in heterogeneous environments where food resources are transient and have to be exploited rapidly. Ants show a wide range of foraging strategies and this activity is tightly regulated irrespective of the mode of recruitment used. Individual foragers base their decision to forage on information received from nestmates (social information). Transmission of information can be in the form of direct physical interactions such as antennation or indirect exchange of information such as laying of pheromone trails. Foragers also rely on information from their internal states or experience (personal information). The interaction between these two sources of information gives rise to plasticity in foraging behavior. Recent studies have examined the role of personality (consistent inter-individual variation in behavioral traits) during ant foraging. Since colonies differ from each other in the distribution of personalities of their members, colonies may consistently differ in behavioral traits, giving rise to colony level personality. However, the interaction between information use and personality, especially at the individual level, remains unexplored. Here, we briefly summarize the literature on the effect of social and personal information on the regulation of ant foraging and the effect of personality on this behavior. We point out that a more focused examination of the interplay between personality and information use will help us understand how behavioral plasticity in the context of foraging is shaped at the colony and individual levels.

1. Nest mounds are an integral part of many subterranean insect species, and they aid in thermoregulation, gaseous exchange, and flood prevention. Ants living in subterranean nests are prone to nest flooding particularly during monsoons and this will impact the colonies' fitness. 2. Diacamma indicum is a tropical Ponerine ant species that lives in simple, single‐chambered nests with a single entrance. In this study, we characterised the mound architecture and performed field experiments to check functional significance of mounds. 3. On examining mound architecture (n = 19 nests), we found that mounds not only elevated the nest entrance by 3.39 cm on average, but they also made the entrance at the top of the mound significantly smaller than the nest entrance at the base of the mound. Both these features are likely to reduce rainwater from falling directly into the nest's entrance tunnel. 4. Upon performing partial (n = 18 nests) and complete destruction (n = 20 nests) in two different seasons, colonies were observed to actively rebuilt mounds to pre‐destruction levels within 3 days in all cases. 5. Furthermore, examining the amount of water that entered the nest upon flooding in the presence and absence of mounds (n = 18 colonies) revealed that mounds prevented a minimum of 29.2% of water from seeping into the nest from the surrounding area, as mounds could act as a levee. This study highlights the active architectural adaptations to flooding by an organism that dwells in subterranean nests in a tropical habitat.