Determination of the hunting strategy in the genus smithistruma (Formicinae - Myrmicinae) by the kind of prey

Abstract

When they prepare to capture a collembolan (principal prey), the hunting workers from colonies provisioned with collembolans (control) present at the beginning of their behaviour sequence a phase of pointing which is acquired progressively, (the collembolans are attracted to the workers in the pointing phase, Dejean 1985a). On the other hand, if during the first weeks of their having become hunters, the workers only encounter alternative prey (test), the pointing phase is not acquired even if afterwards there is frequent contact with collembolans. Instead, the workers approach the prey slowly. After the failure of a first capture attempt, the workers present a stereotyped alternate behaviour. If they find the prey that escaped, the approach is rapid, and attack is immediate no matter what the prey type or the origin of the worker (test or control). The overall outcome (first and second try) shows that the controls stay specialized in the capture of collembolans while the test workers are generalist predators.