Data from: Life expectancy in ants explains variation in helpfulness, regardless of phylogenetic relatedness
Data files
Dec 18, 2024 version files 160.96 KB
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Dataset_Ants_LifeExpectancy_RescueBehaviour_2024.xlsx
158.12 KB
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Raw_Phylogenetic_Tree_of_Ants.txt
778 B
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README.md
2.07 KB
Abstract
Rescue behavior aims at removing an individual from harm. Ants are particularly known for such helpfulness and, perhaps not coincidentally, also show the highest level of social organization in the animal kingdom, i.e., eusociality. However, even among social species such as ants, there is a huge variation in rescue proneness, and little is understood about the underlying causes of this variation. In this study, we explore the relationship between helpfulness in the form of rescue and life expectancy, focusing on 14 ant species with diverse phylogenetic affiliations. We posit that species with longer worker life expectancies are more prone to engaging in rescue actions. To test this, we assessed worker lifespan in each species and conducted behavioral tests simulating entrapment scenarios involving a nestmate ensnared by an artificial obstacle. Observed behaviors involved contact with the nestmate, digging around it, pulling at its body parts, and biting the entrapping obstacle. Our findings reveal that species with longer worker life expectancies exhibit higher proneness to rescue endangered nestmates, irrespective of phylogenetic relatedness. Furthermore, we found no trace of a phylogenetic signal in the life expectancies or helpfulness of workers belonging to different species. The results underscore the significance of life expectancy as a key factor influencing the likelihood of rescue behavior in ants. This phenomenon warrants further investigation, given the varied physiologies, life histories, and ecologies observed among species. Nevertheless, the impact of life expectancy on behavioral patterns in social insects suggests that this parameter is likely significant across diverse taxa. Keywords: ants, altruism, Formicidae, life expectancy, pro-social behavior, rescue behavior.
README: Data from: Life expectancy in ants explains variation in helpfulness, regardless of phylogenetic relatedness
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.wdbrv15zx
Description of the data and file structure
The data were collected to investigate the relationship between life expectancy and rescue behavior in ants. We gathered ants belonging to 14 species. We collected 5 ant colonies of each species (in total, 70 ant colonies were collected). We analyzed survivorship of ants through long-term monitoring of mortality in standardized conditions and we analyzed ant rescue behavior via simulations of rescue scenarios using a controlled entrapment setup. We also included phylogenetic analyses of the studied ant species.
Files and variables
File: Dataset_Ants_LifeExpectancy_RescueBehaviour_2024.xlsx
Description: The Survivorship sheet contains data about the mortality of ants. We monitored mortality daily until day 250 since the establishment of each survival group. We analyzed the mortality of a total of 3500 individuals (14 species × 5 colonies × 50 individuals = 3500 individuals). The Rescue Duration sheet contains information about the duration of particular rescue behaviors observed in rescue behavior tests (in seconds). We performed 50 tests for each colony, amounting to 3500 tests conducted (14 species × 5 colonies × 50 tests = 3500 tests).
File: Raw_Phylogenetic_Tree_of_Ants.txt: The Phylogenetic Tree of Ants file contains information about the raw genetic tree from the 14 ant species in Newick format.
Variables
- colony: number of the colony
- species: name of the ant species
- time: the day of ant death
- status: indicates whether the data is censored (assigned as 1) or uncensored (assigned as 2)
- contact duration: duration of contact behavior in seconds
- digging duration: duration of digging behavior in seconds
- pulling duration: duration of pulling behavior in seconds
- thread biting duration: duration of thread biting behavior in seconds