A silk-nest weaving Dolichoderine ant in a Malayan rain forest

Abstract

In a montane Malayan rain forest, at an elevation of about 900 m above sea level, we found an undetermined and possibly undescribedDolichoderus species of thethoracicus group, living in colonies consisting of 50–100 silken pavilions on the undersides of leaves of different species of trees. Inside these pavilions, the ants kept scale insects, which we never found outside the nests on the colony tree. The stock of symbionts was actively regulated; supernumerary scale insects were thrown to the ground by the workers. New pavilions were colonized with scale insects. Our observations and behavioural experiments revealed that the silken material is produced by neither the brood nor the scale insects, but by the worker ants. This is the first proof of weaver ants outside the subfamily Camponotinae.