A small number of workers with specific personality traits perform tool use in ants

Abstract

Ants use debris as tools to collect and transport liquid food to the nest. Previous studies showed that this behaviour is flexible whereby ants learn to use artificial material that is novel to them and select tools with optimal soaking properties. However, the process of tool use has not been studied at the individual level. We investigated whether workers specialise in tool use and whether there is a link between individual personality traits and tool use in the ant Aphaenogaster senilis. Only a small number of workers performed tool use and they did it repeatedly, although they also collected solid food. Personality predicted the probability to perform tool use: ants that showed higher exploratory activity and were more attracted to a prey in the personality tests became the new tool users when previous tool users were removed from the group. This suggests that, instead of extreme task specialisation, variation in personality traits within the colony may improve division of labour.

Ants’ Personality and Its Dependence on Foraging Styles: Research Perspectives

“…Fast explorers in the open-field took more time to approach the ambiguous stimulus compared to slow explorers. Maák et al (2020) revealed a link between behavioral traits and tool use in A. senilis. This species has long been known as the user of debris to transport liquid food (Fellers and Fellers, 1976;reviews in Lőrinczi et al, 2018;Maák et al, 2020).…”

“…Maák et al (2020) revealed a link between behavioral traits and tool use in A. senilis. This species has long been known as the user of debris to transport liquid food (Fellers and Fellers, 1976;reviews in Lőrinczi et al, 2018;Maák et al, 2020). Maák et al (2020) tested tool-using abilities in individuals using two tests, open-field and reaction to prey.…”

“…This species has long been known as the user of debris to transport liquid food (Fellers and Fellers, 1976;reviews in Lőrinczi et al, 2018;Maák et al, 2020). Maák et al (2020) tested tool-using abilities in individuals using two tests, open-field and reaction to prey. The personality predicted the probability to perform tool use: ants that showed higher exploratory activity and were more attracted to prey in the personality tests readily became new tool users when previous tool users were removed from the group.…”

“…However, essential individual differences and behavioral and learning flexibility can be promising for studying worker personality, especially in group recruiting species. To date, data on personality at the individual level include group recruiting C. aethiops (d 'Ettorre et al, 2017), Myrmica (Chapman et al, 2011;Pamminger et al, 2014) that can switch between mass-and group recruiting, and A. senilis (Maák et al, 2020) switching between solitary foraging and group recruiting.…”

“…There is much evidence that the role of individual learning and behavioral variability in foraging based on tandemrunning, mass-and group recruiting systems is significant, which makes these systems promising for studying worker personalities. However, to date, among species with mobilization systems, data on personality at the individual level include only three cases: group recruiting C. aethiops (d 'Ettorre et al, 2017), Myrmica (Chapman et al, 2011;Pamminger et al, 2014) that can switch between mass-and group recruiting, and A. senilis (Maák et al, 2020) switching between solitary foraging and group recruiting. Surprisingly, solitary foraging ants, with their good learning abilities and essential individual variability, poorly studied in the context of personality.…”