Effect of nocturnal lighting on an ant’s ethological and physiological traits

Abstract

Artificial nocturnal lighting affects the nature, an impact best studied on vertebrates that are directly depending on the presence or absence of light. Here, we examined on an ant species taken as a model the effects of artificial nocturnal lighting on eleven physiological and ethological traits. Ant workers maintained under nocturnal lighting showed a decrease or a change in their level of activity, food consumption, locomotion, orientation ability, audacity, tactile perception, social relationship, learning and memory. This was largely observed during the night but the effects persisted, at a lower extend, during the day.