An automated photographic technique for behavioural investigations of social insects.

We describe a technique based on automatic photography as an alternative to the visual scanning method for behavioural investigations of insect societies. This technique opens up the possibilities for studying poorly-populated colonies over prolonged periods. The reliability of this technique as compared to the direct observational method was demonstrated on the basis of an investigation of the social organization of a neotropical Ponerine ant (Ectatomma ruidum ). The results obtained by the two techniques were very comparable both in regards to the overall behavioural profiles for the colony and as concerns the description of functional groups and sub-castes.