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Data from: Sources of intraspecific variation in the collective tempo and synchrony of ant societies

Doering, Grant, McMaster University
Sheehy, Kirsten, University of California, Santa Barbara
Lichtenstein, James, University of California, Santa Barbara
Drawert, Brian, University of California, Santa Barbara
Petzold, Linda, University of California, Santa Barbara
Pruitt, Jonathan, McMaster University
doeringg@mcmaster.ca
Published Feb 20, 2020 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.4b92t21

Cite this dataset

Doering, Grant et al. (2020). Data from: Sources of intraspecific variation in the collective tempo and synchrony of ant societies [Dataset]. Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.4b92t21

Abstract

Populations of independently oscillating agents can sometimes synchronize. In the context of animal societies, conspicuous synchronization of activity is known in some social insects. However, the causes of variation in synchrony within and between species have received little attention. We repeatedly assessed the short-term activity cycle of ant colonies (Temnothorax rugatulus) and monitored the movements of individual workers and queens within nests. We detected persistent differences between colonies in the waveform properties of their collective activity oscillations, with some colonies consistently oscillating much more erratically than others. We further demonstrate that colony crowding reduces the rhythmicity (i.e., the consistent timing) of oscillations. Workers in both erratic and rhythmic colonies spend less time active than completely isolated workers, but workers in erratic colonies oscillate out of phase with one another. We further show that the queen’s absence can impair the ability of colonies to synchronize worker activity and that behavioral differences between queens are linked with the waveform properties of their societies.

Usage notes

  1. Doering_et_al_2019_Temnothorax_all_time_series_scores - Contains time series traits for all 108 colony-level activity time series from experiment 1. The reason for duplicated values in the column "Period_wavelet" are discussed in the published SI methods of the paper.

 

  1. worker_removal – Contains time series traits for 6 colonies before and after a random worker was removed from each colony.

 

  1. Queen_removal – Contains time series traits for 6 colonies before and after their respective queens were removed from each colony.

 

  1. innest_queen_transition_9hr.csv – The proportion of time spent active and transition probabilities from active to inactive and vice versa for queens while inside their nests when measured for 9-hours. The colony each queen belonged to was classified as either erratic or rhythmic. The colony-level time series traits from each recording where queens were tracked are also included.

 

  1. innest_queen_transition_2hr.csv - The proportion of time spent active and transition probabilities from active to inactive and vice versa for queens while inside their nests when measured for 2-hours. The colony each queen belonged to was classified as either erratic or rhythmic.

 

  1. innest_worker_transition.csv - The proportion of time spent active and transition probabilities from active to inactive and vice versa for workers while inside their nests with other workers.

 

  1. experiment2_isolated_queens.csv - The proportion of time spent active and transition probabilities from active to inactive and vice versa for 6 queens sourced from 6 separate colonies while isolated.

 

  1. experiment2_isolated_workers.csv - The proportion of time spent active and transition probabilities from active to inactive and vice versa for 6 workers sourced from 6 separate colonies while isolated.

 

  1. Average_waveform_traits_Temnothorax - The averages for the 6 waveform traits of the 18 colonies used in the experiment. Brood and worker counts for each colony are also included.