Data from:Open and closed economies as possible alternative strategies to resource heterogeneity in ants
Data files
May 14, 2025 version files 10.42 KB
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Fig2A.csv
603 B
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Fig2B.csv
653 B
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Fig3A.csv
846 B
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Fig3B.csv
798 B
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FigS1AB.csv
444 B
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FigS2.csv
2.79 KB
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README.md
2.80 KB
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Table1.csv
1.02 KB
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Table2.csv
457 B
Abstract
Ant colonies have either a single nest (monodomy) or multiple nests (polydomy). A challenge is to explain their adaptive significane, specifying costs and benefits of each colony type. An explanation for ant polydomy is adaptation to spatially heterogenous environments. With polydomy a colony can exchange complementary nutrition among nests within the entire colony occupying a wide territory. We tested this resource redistribution hypothesis using two closely related species,i.e. the polydomous ant Pheidole megacephala and the monodomous ant Pheidole noda. We put each colony in an artificially polydomous setting with two nests connected by tubes. We provided liquid food lacking protein to one nest and that lacking carbohydrates to the other nest. P. megacephala almost totally failed to produce brood when the connecting tubes were clipped, whereas it improved reproductive performance when the tubes were open. In marked contrast, P. noda, managed to maintain high performance for a long period even when only nutritionally biased food was provided, most likely by relying on stored provisions that compensated for the missing nutrients. Based on these data we propose the hypothesis that ant polydomy is an open economic strategy to counter heterogeneity in resource distribution 'spatially' by trading between nests and extending the resource searching area, whereas monodomy may be a closed economic strategy to cope with resource heterogeneity `temporally` by withstanding food-depressed periods with stored nutrition and by efficient utilization of frugal diets. More empirical data in other ant taxa are necessary to test generality of this idea.
We have submitted our raw data (Fig2A.csv and Fig2B.csv), Resource redistribution experiment: brood production in P. megacephala and P. noda (Fig3A.csv and Fig3B.csv), Resource redistribution experiment: worker survival(Table1.csv), Position of brood and workers at the end of resource redistribution experiment(Table2.csv), A long-term brood production in P. noda colonies when fed only sugar(FigS1AB.csv), Suitability of tryptone as a pure protein source for the growth of P. megacephala and P. noda (FigS2.csv), Effect of protein levels on workers survival in P. megacephala.
Descriptions
Fig2A,Fig2B,Fig3A,Fig3B Data
- Treatment: A (All-nutrition-mixture food). Both nests were provisioned with all nutrition food.
C (One nest was provisioned with protein and another nest was provisioned with sugar)
D1 (negative control 1 of C. Both nests were disconnected throughout the experiments.
D2-s and D2-p (negative control 2 of C with different colony size.
D2-s (sugar lacking nest) and D2-p(protein lacking nest) - Colony ID: Ant colony Identity name
- brood: Total number of brood (eggs,larvae,pupae)
- larvapupa: The number of (larvae and pupae)
- surviving: The number of surviving workers at the end of experiment
- surviving(prop):The proportion of surviving workers
Table1 Data
- Treatment: Nest1 and Nest2 ( Two connected nests of A and C treatments)
- ColonyID: The same ant colonyID was used as mentioned above.
- megA,megC,nodA,nodC:brood: Total number of brood in treatment A and C in P. megacephala and P. noda
- megA,megC,nodA,nodC:larvapupa: The number of larvae and pupae in treatment A and C
- megA,megC,nodA,nodC:surviving:The number of surviving workers in treatment A and C
Table2 Data
- Treatment: All(All-nutrition-mixture food),Sugaronly (Suagr-only food)
- ColonyID: Ant colony identity name
- egg,larva,pupa,brood,worker: Total number of brood,egg,larva, pupa, surviving workers were counted after 8 weeks.
FigS1AB Data
- Treatment:Mealworm (control treatment of crushed dry mealworm), Tryptone(protein source), Lactalbumin (protein source)
- ColonyID:Ant colony identity name
- mega:brood,mega:larvapupa,noda:brood,noda:larvapupa: Total number of brood,larva and pupa were counted in P. megacephala and P. noda
FigS2 Data
- day: Experimental period 35 days
- plevel:p1 contained 14g pure protein (tryptone).
The diets p2,p3,p4,p5 and p6 had five different protein levels(14,7,3.5,1.4, and 0.7g of tryptone.
To assess mortality under each protein level, the number of dead workers in four colonies was counted every day.
Software
R version 3.0.2 was used to do statistical analyses for all data.