The organization of nest evacuation in Pheidole desertorum wheeler and P. hyatti emery (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Between-species differences of behavioural repertoire of castes in the ant genus Pheidole : a methodological artefact?

“…This result contrasts with the commonly accepted idea that majors of Pheidole species are specialized in a few sets of tasks such as colony defence, seed milling or food storage, with the behavioural repertoire of majors overlapping weakly that of minors (Wilson, 1976(Wilson, , 1984Calabi et al, 1983;Droual, 1983;Fowler, 1984;Wilson and Hölldobler, 1985). In most of these Pheidole species, minors are considered as the main or even exclusive brood tenders.…”

“…However, these majors were never seen transporting or feeding brood. Regarding brood transport, majors do not participate in the spatial arrangement of larvae instars within the colony except during nest emigration (Droual, 1983) or experi-mental removal of larvae outside the nest (personal observation). Concerning brood feeding, colonies comprising only P. pallidula majors systematically failed to rear an adult worker out of a limited number of eggs, demonstrating the incompetence of majors in handling successfully the whole brood development cycle.…”

Interspecific interference for nest sites betweenLeptothorax congruus andMonomorium intrudens

“…Alternatively, laboratory colonies of L. congruus confronted with invasion by M. intrudens easily escaped from their nests after a brief episode of fighting only at the nest entrance (Yamaguchi, unpublished data). Such prompt nest evacuation is rather common among weak ant species, who thereby save their own colonies against raids by their predator (Wilson, 1976;LaMon, 1981;Droual, 1983Droual, , 1984. The high frequency of nest recolonization in the ant communities observed in the present study is a consequence of such species interaction between a strong late-comer and a weak early occupant.…”

Trail and Territorial Communication in Social Insects

“…In some communities, social insects are among the most important predators of other social insects. Army ants, for example, exert considerable predation pressure on social wasps and ground-dwelling ant species; both groups have adapted to their predatory raids by detecting and rapidly responding to the presence of Eciton and Neivamyrmex (Chadab, 1979;Droual, 1983Droual, , 1984.…”