We examined the recruitment rate of nestmates during prey capture in six arboreal ant species: Myrmicaria opaciventris, Platythyrea conradti, Crematogaster sp., Crematogaster clariventris, Tetramorium aculeatum, and Oecophylla longinoda. Termites and grasshoppers were used as prey. Prey were grouped by size: for termites, we presented ants with either workers or soldiers and for grasshoppers, we used small nymphs, mature nymphs and adults. After prey detection by a foraging ant, the total recruits present were counted every 30 s over the course of 15 min, and the mean numbers of workers counted at each time interval was computed and plotted for each prey type. We tested the effect of prey type, prey size and termite caste for each ant species on the number of nestmates recruited using ANOVA (GLM proc). Prey size, prey type and termite caste significantly influenced the mean number of nestmates following initial prey detection. We found that the observed recruitments were well explained by linear models for less arboreal (M. opaciventris) and primitive arboreal species (P. conradti), reflecting stochastic movement by individuals or stochastic collective recruitment. For specialized arboreal ant species, recruitment was well explained by exponential models, reflecting within-group recruitment, either with limited or with unlimited group sizes. Overall, T. aculeatum had the highest level of nestmate recruitment. Surprisingly, O. longinoda, known to be one of the most specialized arboreal ant species, fit a recruitment model more like that of either ground ants with some arboreal foraging habits or primitive arboreal species.

中文翻译：

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六种热带树栖蚂蚁（膜翅目：蚁科）的巢友招募率

我们检查了六种树栖蚂蚁物种在捕获猎物期间同巢伙伴的招募率：Myrmicaria opaciventris、Platythyrea conradti、Crematogaster sp.、Cremaogaster clariventris、Tetramorium aculeatum 和 Oecophylla longinoda。白蚁和蚱蜢被用作猎物。猎物按大小分组：对于白蚁，我们向蚂蚁提供工人或士兵，对于蚱蜢，我们使用小若虫、成熟若虫和成虫。在觅食蚂蚁检测到猎物后，在 15 分钟的过程中每 30 秒计算一次在场的新兵总数，并计算每个时间间隔内计数的工人平均数量，并为每种猎物类型绘制图表。我们使用方差分析 (GLM proc) 测试了每种蚂蚁物种的猎物类型、猎物大小和白蚁种姓对招募的同窝伴侣数量的影响。猎物大小，猎物类型和白蚁种姓显着影响了初始猎物检测后的平均巢穴数量。我们发现观察到的招募可以通过较少树栖 (M. opaciventris) 和原始树栖物种 (P. conradti) 的线性模型得到很好的解释，反映了个体的随机运动或随机集体招募。对于专门的树栖蚂蚁物种，指数模型很好地解释了招募，反映了群体内招募，无论是有限的还是无限的群体规模。总体而言，T. aculeatum 的同巢伙伴招募水平最高。令人惊讶的是，O. longinoda 被认为是最特化的树栖蚂蚁物种之一，它更像是具有一些树栖觅食习惯的地面蚂蚁或原始树栖物种的招募模型。