Abstract
Walking long distances through a trail system is an intrinsic feature of the leaf-cutting ants. Workers travel hundred of meters to forage by using well-defined physical routes which are cleared of vegetation or obstacles. Despite the costs of construction and maintenance, cleared trails should promote more benefits than non-physical ones, especially related to the leaf supply for the colony. Here, the leaf delivery rate in constructed and non-constructed trails was compared by counting the foraging flow and travel time of workers. Also the length and width of trails were measured. It was found that leaf delivery rate was 67.47% higher for foragers who were walking along physical trails. The forager walking speed on physical trails had an increment of 86.10% . These significant increments might be related to the truly narrow corridor present inside physical trails that are leaf litter-free, and thereby chemically stronger and smoother than non-physical ones. The speed improvement could induce the construction of longer trails which guide the workers more efficiently to the foraging patch. Thus, physical trails have an important role in foraging efficiency as they allow workers go quickly and further to forage, since they limit a path and congregate more individuals, raising the leaf delivery rate. This study provides additional information about foraging trails of leaf-cutting ants.
Highlights
One of the most important aptitudes of life involves motility
The present study has indicated that the leaf delivery rate was on average 69.56% higher in physical trails when compared with non-physical ones
Inbound laden workers walking in these trails took less time to travel up to the nest compared with those traveling in non-physical ones, which could explain the construction of longer and narrower trails
Summary
From intracellular molecular transport to flight of birds, movement is one of life’s central attributes (Chowdhury et al, 2005) This assumption is strikingly evident for leaf-cutting ants who travel along trails hundreds of meters long (Lewis et al, 2008). Foraging trails arise from the recruitment process, which involves outbound scouts, who are the first workers to leave the nest seeking food. A positive feedback occurs, in which the more intense the pheromone trails, the more ants that are recruited and so on (Sumpter, 2006) This huge flow of individuals can assure a greater food supply to the colony, since more forager workers are directly related to increase of material collection. The forager flow along a trail can be established in various environments with different physical characteristics, such as rugosity (Moll et al, 2010), and in the presence of leaf litter (Bruce & Burd, 2012), which may or may not facilitate the forager traveling (Bollazzi & Roces, 2011)
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