Pro-social behaviour of ants depends on their ecological niche—Rescue actions in species from tropical and temperate regions

Ants Co-Occurring with Predatory Antlions Show Unsuccessful Rescue Behavior towards Captured Nestmates

“…It seems plausible that rescue behavioral patterns in F. cinerea, and possibly other sand-dwelling ants, are more of an artefact in the context of antlion larva capture (stemming, e.g., from ants' inability to differentiate between entrapment contexts). It is worth noting that F. polyctena ants, forest groundcover species that never meet antlions in nature but probably face other entrapment situations, show rescue behaviors in an antlion larva capture context (Miler et al 2017c), supporting the idea that ants do not differentiate between entrapment contexts. Nest cave-ins are likely much more important than antlion encounters for the evolution of rescue behavioral patterns in F. cinerea species, as well as in other sand-dwelling ants.…”

“…Sand-dwelling ants are most often indicated as the prey of antlions, and circumstantial evidence suggests that antlion threats towards these ants are strong and result in selection pressures towards the evolution of their various defense strategies. For instance, it has been shown that these ants have means of securing their immediate release when caught by antlion larvae (Lucas and Brockmann 1981;Eisner et al 1993) and that they may show rescue behavior towards nestmates caught by antlion larvae (Czechowski et al 2002;Hollis and Nowbahari 2013;Miler et al 2017c). All of these findings have led to claims of coevolution between antlions and ants (Hollis et al 2015;Hollis 2017).…”

Increased Risk Proneness or Social Withdrawal? The Effects of Shortened Life Expectancy on the Expression of Rescue Behavior in Workers of the ant Formica cinerea (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

“…We noted whether rescue behavior occurred, and if so, we noted the latency to the first episode of rescue behavior and the total duration of rescue. Similarly as in the previous experiments (Miler 2016 ; Miler and Kuszewska 2017 ; Miler et al 2017 ), digging around the victim, pulling at its limbs/antennae/mandibles, transport of the sand covering the victim, snare biting in entrapment tests, and direct attack on the antlion in antlion larva capture tests were considered by us as the main subcategories of rescue behavior. Our final dataset included the results of 30 tests for each group (control and experimental) in each bioassay in each of three colonies (in total, 360 tests).…”

“…The behavior of the rescuer must also be generally suited to the circumstances, and not inherently rewarding or beneficial to the rescuer (Hollis and Nowbahari 2012 ). Behavior patterns involved in ant rescue behavior were investigated in several experimental studies by means of two bioassays: the antlion larva capture bioassay (Czechowski et al 2002 ; Taylor et al 2013 ; Miler 2016 ; Miler et al 2017 ) and the entrapment bioassay (Nowbahari et al 2009 , 2012 , 2016 ; Hollis and Nowbahari 2013 ; Duhoo et al 2017 ; Miler and Kuszewska 2017 ; Miler et al 2017 ). Antlion larvae display quite sophisticated hunting techniques: they construct pitfall traps to catch insect prey, especially ants (Hollis et al 2015 ; Hollis 2017 ).…”

Dyadic Nestmate Reunion Test in the Research on Ant Social Behavior

“…A series of experiments of Miler and his coworkers explored various factors influencing nestmate rescue behavior of workers of F. cinerea during bioassays with antlion larvae (Miler 2016) and artificial snares (Miler and kuszeWska 2017), and during both these types of bioassays (Miler et al 2017a(Miler et al , 2017b. These studies revealed, among others, that workers of F. cinerea with life expectancy experimentally shortened by exposure to carbon dioxide less efficiently triggered rescue behavior of their nestmates during the bioassays with antlion larvae (Miler 2016), and less readily engaged in rescue behavior in response to a nestmate entrapped in an artificial snare (Miler et al 2017b).…”