Staff View: Foraging of a hypogaeic army ant: a long neglected majority

Foraging of a hypogaeic army ant: a long neglected majority

Army ants have been studied thoroughly for more than a century. The conduction of column and swarm mass raids, featured by epigacicly active species, is believed to be a central characteristic of army ant behavior. Most army ant species, however, lead a hypogaeic life. Due to the difficulties to obs...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Hashim, Rosli, Maschwitz, U., Berghoff, S.M., Weissflog, A., Linsenmair, K.E.
Format:	Article
Published:	2002
Subjects:	QH301 Biology
Online Access:	http://eprints.um.edu.my/8274/ http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs00040-002-8292-0.pdf
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

id	my.um.eprints.8274
record_format	eprints
spelling	my.um.eprints.82742019-01-24T09:07:28Z http://eprints.um.edu.my/8274/ Foraging of a hypogaeic army ant: a long neglected majority Hashim, Rosli Maschwitz, U. Berghoff, S.M. Weissflog, A. Linsenmair, K.E. QH301 Biology Army ants have been studied thoroughly for more than a century. The conduction of column and swarm mass raids, featured by epigacicly active species, is believed to be a central characteristic of army ant behavior. Most army ant species, however, lead a hypogaeic life. Due to the difficulties to observe them, nothing is known about their hypogacic behavior in the field. Using palm oil baits, trail excavations, and laboratory observations, the hypogaeic foraging of Dorylus (Dichthadia) laevigatus was observed in Malaysia. D. laevigatus was found to construct stable hypogaeic trunk trail systems providing quick and easy access to all parts of its foraging area. Small column raids were conducted throughout the ground stratum and above the ground surface. These raids were caste specific, with the smallest workers predominantly following existing cracks and tunnels in the soil. In case of food location, larger workers were recruited from nearby trunk trails. Exploratory trails leading to prey had to be widened before larger workers could gain access and help to process the food. Bulky food sources such as baits or termite mounds could be exploited over several weeks to months. Besides raiding in columns, D. laevigatus came occasionally to the ground surface at night to conduct swarm raids. This combination of swarm and column raids with the use of trunk trails has never been demonstrated for a classical army ant species. The omnipresence of D. laevigatus within its foraging area stands in sharp contrast to epigaeicly active species, characterized by a very localized and temporary presence at foraging sites. D. laevigatus stayed in the same foraging area for several weeks to months. Having a broad diet and the ability to exploit bulky food sources over long periods of time, D. laevigatus seems to follow a sustainable use of the soil fauna. Summing up these particularities demonstrates a remarkable divergence of the hypogacic foraging of D. laevigatus from that of epigacicly foraging army ant species. 2002 Article PeerReviewed Hashim, Rosli and Maschwitz, U. and Berghoff, S.M. and Weissflog, A. and Linsenmair, K.E. (2002) Foraging of a hypogaeic army ant: a long neglected majority. Insectes Sociaux, 49 (2). pp. 133-141. ISSN 0020-1812 http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs00040-002-8292-0.pdf 10.1007/s00040-002-8292-0
institution	Universiti Malaya
building	UM Library
collection	Institutional Repository
continent	Asia
country	Malaysia
content_provider	Universiti Malaya
content_source	UM Research Repository
url_provider	http://eprints.um.edu.my/
topic	QH301 Biology
spellingShingle	QH301 Biology Hashim, Rosli Maschwitz, U. Berghoff, S.M. Weissflog, A. Linsenmair, K.E. Foraging of a hypogaeic army ant: a long neglected majority
description	Army ants have been studied thoroughly for more than a century. The conduction of column and swarm mass raids, featured by epigacicly active species, is believed to be a central characteristic of army ant behavior. Most army ant species, however, lead a hypogaeic life. Due to the difficulties to observe them, nothing is known about their hypogacic behavior in the field. Using palm oil baits, trail excavations, and laboratory observations, the hypogaeic foraging of Dorylus (Dichthadia) laevigatus was observed in Malaysia. D. laevigatus was found to construct stable hypogaeic trunk trail systems providing quick and easy access to all parts of its foraging area. Small column raids were conducted throughout the ground stratum and above the ground surface. These raids were caste specific, with the smallest workers predominantly following existing cracks and tunnels in the soil. In case of food location, larger workers were recruited from nearby trunk trails. Exploratory trails leading to prey had to be widened before larger workers could gain access and help to process the food. Bulky food sources such as baits or termite mounds could be exploited over several weeks to months. Besides raiding in columns, D. laevigatus came occasionally to the ground surface at night to conduct swarm raids. This combination of swarm and column raids with the use of trunk trails has never been demonstrated for a classical army ant species. The omnipresence of D. laevigatus within its foraging area stands in sharp contrast to epigaeicly active species, characterized by a very localized and temporary presence at foraging sites. D. laevigatus stayed in the same foraging area for several weeks to months. Having a broad diet and the ability to exploit bulky food sources over long periods of time, D. laevigatus seems to follow a sustainable use of the soil fauna. Summing up these particularities demonstrates a remarkable divergence of the hypogacic foraging of D. laevigatus from that of epigacicly foraging army ant species.
format	Article
author	Hashim, Rosli Maschwitz, U. Berghoff, S.M. Weissflog, A. Linsenmair, K.E.
author_facet	Hashim, Rosli Maschwitz, U. Berghoff, S.M. Weissflog, A. Linsenmair, K.E.
author_sort	Hashim, Rosli
title	Foraging of a hypogaeic army ant: a long neglected majority
title_short	Foraging of a hypogaeic army ant: a long neglected majority
title_full	Foraging of a hypogaeic army ant: a long neglected majority
title_fullStr	Foraging of a hypogaeic army ant: a long neglected majority
title_full_unstemmed	Foraging of a hypogaeic army ant: a long neglected majority
title_sort	foraging of a hypogaeic army ant: a long neglected majority
publishDate	2002
url	http://eprints.um.edu.my/8274/ http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs00040-002-8292-0.pdf
_version_	1643688263934803968
score	13.211869

Foraging of a hypogaeic army ant: a long neglected majority

Similar Items