Gruszka Anna, Rolski Mateusz, Marczak Mariia, Mitrus Sławomir
Institute of Biology, University of Opole, Oleska 22, 45-052 Opole, Poland.
Insects. 2024 Aug 26;15(9):638. doi: 10.3390/insects15090638.
For ants, nests provide a refuge against predators and protection from environmental factors. Thus, choosing a good nest site is important for an ant colony, but nest sites are limited resources. Ants of the genus inhabit small cavities in, e.g., acorns, twigs and under rocks. Earlier, it was shown that the ants are able to choose a superior site. In this study, using binary choice tests, we studied the nest site selection by ant colonies that typically inhabit empty acorns. For this purpose, we used artificial nest sites without and with an additional slit in the nest wall, mimicking the cracks in potential nest sites under natural conditions. We found that the ant colonies preferred artificial nest sites without these slits. However, no difference in the number of colonies inhabited nest sites with a slit vs. those without a slit was found when the slits were closed using transparent food foil, which prevented the air flow while keeping an inflow of light. What is more, additional light through the hole in the red filter covering the artificial nest sites had no influence on the nest site selection. The results of this study suggest that the air flow through a slit in the nest site wall, rather than additional light, influences the nest site selection. The absence of cracks, e.g., in acorns, could be an indication of the durability of potential nest sites. Thus, choosing a cavity without such damage could be beneficial for the ant colonies.
对于蚂蚁来说，巢穴提供了躲避捕食者的庇护所，并能抵御环境因素。因此，选择一个好的巢穴地点对蚁群很重要，但巢穴地点是有限的资源。 属的蚂蚁栖息在例如橡子、小树枝和岩石下的小洞穴中。早些时候，研究表明蚂蚁能够选择一个更好的地点。在这项研究中，我们使用二元选择测试，研究了通常栖息在空橡子中的蚁群对巢穴地点的选择。为此，我们使用了在巢壁上有无额外裂缝的人工巢穴地点，模拟自然条件下潜在巢穴地点的裂缝。我们发现蚁群更喜欢没有这些裂缝的人工巢穴地点。然而，当用透明食品箔封闭裂缝时，发现栖息在有裂缝巢穴地点的蚁群数量与没有裂缝的蚁群数量没有差异，透明食品箔在保持光线流入的同时阻止了空气流动。此外，通过覆盖人工巢穴地点的红色滤光片上的孔透入的额外光线对巢穴地点的选择没有影响。这项研究的结果表明，巢穴地点壁上裂缝中的空气流动，而不是额外的光线，影响了巢穴地点的选择。例如，橡子中没有裂缝可能表明潜在巢穴地点的耐用性。因此，选择一个没有这种损坏的洞穴对蚁群可能是有益的。
