Effect of the land area elevation on the collective choice in ants

Abstract

Collective decisions regarding food source exploitation in social insects are influenced by a range of parameters, from source quality to individual preference and social information sharing. Those regarding the elevation of the physical trail towards a food source have been neglected. In this work, we investigated the effect of ascending and descending paths from the nest to a food source on collective choice in two ant species Lasius niger and Myrmica rubra. Our hypothesis that returning loaded with food from the high source is more energy efficient was validated by choice experiments: when the sources are simultaneously introduced the high food source is preferentially exploited by both species. The flexibility of colony response was then tested by introducing the preferred source (high) incidentally, after recruitment towards the down food source began. Despite the well-known lack of flexibility of L. niger, both species showed the ability to reallocate their foraging workforce towards the highest food source. The collective choice and the flexibility are based on the difference between the u-turn rates when foragers are facing the ascending or descending branch. We discuss these results in terms of species-specifics characteristics and ecological context.