Abstract
The removal of corpses (aka ‘necrophoric behavior’) is critical to sanitation in ant colonies. However, little is known about differences in the necrophoric responses of Solenopsis invicta workers towards corpses of nestmates and non-nestmates. We introduced corpses of S. invicta workers from either intracolony (i.e., nestmate) or intercolony (i.e., non-nestmate) origin at the entrance of artificial nests, and recorded workers’ aggressive responses and necrophoric behaviors for analysis. Solenopsis invicta workers displayed distinct responses towards corpses of different origins. Specifically, resident workers were more likely to remove fresh non-nestmate corpses than nestmate corpses, but there was no difference regarding corpses that had been dead for 15 min or longer. Resident workers reacted more aggressively to, and removed more quickly, fresh non-nestmate corpses than corpses of their nestmates. On the other hand, there was no significant difference in the removal time between nestmate and non-nestmate corpses that had been dead for 15 min or longer. Resident workers always displayed stronger aggressiveness towards non-nestmate corpses than nestmate corpses, excepting to corpses that had been dead for 6 h, which elicited a response. No significant correlation between the removal times and aggressiveness levels were detected in any treatments. It remains to be tested whether this differential response is adaptive in how it influences colony fitness and competition.
Highlights
The removal of corpses is critical to sanitation in ant colonies
This was investigated in different steps: 1) whether S. invicta workers would remove more nonnestmate corpses than nestmate corpses; 2) if the origin of removed corpses and their elapsed time since death have an effect on the necrophoric behavioral responses by resident workers; 3) whether there is a correlation between the speed of corpse removal and the displayed aggression level towards corpses of different origins
The main objective of this study was to investigate whether corpses from alien colonies would trigger different necrophoric behaviors by resident S. invicta workers
Summary
The removal of corpses (aka ‘necrophoric behavior’) is critical to sanitation in ant colonies. The corpses of nestmates are buried inside and/or removed from the nest by the resident workers (Renucci et al 2010; Diez et al 2011, 2013; Sun et al 2013), and in rare cases, corpses may be cannibalized (Howard and Tschinkel 1976). Such conditions, the encounters with corpses of non-nestmates within colonies can be relatively frequent in the field
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