Territorial strategy in animals is characterized by the monopoly of resources inside a protected area, the territory. The presence of territorial species considerably alters the behavior of co-occurring submissives, as it is known in several submissive ant species living on the territories of red wood ants in temperate regions. On the other hand, as a rule, territorial species cannot share the same territory and usually exclude each other. However, this ‘rule’ is inferred from the almost complete lack of data on the coexistence of rival territorials, and not from observations regarding the effective exclusion or behavioral inhibition of one territorial species by other. In the frame of this study, we investigated the foraging strategy of the territorial red wood ant Formica pratensis that occurred inside a large polydomous system of another territorial ant species, F. exsecta . Formica pratensis colonies outside the supercolony served as control. Within the F. exsecta supercolony, F. pratensis showed the characteristics of a subordinate species characterized by low discovery and exploitation success of artificial food sources. On the contrary, control colonies outside the polydomous system clearly behaved like typical territorials as they successfully monopolized the majority of the baits. In addition, submissive species were more successful around the F. pratensis nests within the supercolony, than outside of it. As suggested by our results, territorial species could co-occur with other territorials given certain plasticity in their behavior and small colony size. Nevertheless, exclusion also happens as proven by our field observations.

中文翻译：

---

生活在边缘：与竞争对手的超级群体一起发生的领土蚂蚁物种觅食策略的变化 - 案例研究

动物的领土战略的特点是在保护区内的资源垄断，领土。领土物种的存在极大地改变了共生的顺从蚂蚁的行为，正如生活在温带地区红木蚂蚁领土上的几种顺从蚂蚁物种所熟知的那样。另一方面，作为一项规则，领土物种不能共享同一领土，通常相互排斥。然而，这一“规则”是从几乎完全缺乏关于敌对领土共存的数据中推断出来的，而不是从关于一个领土物种被另一个领土物种有效排斥或行为抑制的观察结果中推断出来的。在本研究的框架内，我们调查了领土红木蚁 Formica pratensis 的觅食策略，这种策略发生在另一个领土蚂蚁物种 F. exsecta 的大型多足系统内。超级菌落外的Formica pratensis菌落作为对照。在 F. exsecta 超级群落中，F. pratensis 显示出从属物种的特征，其特征是人工食物来源的发现和开发成功率低。相反，在多域系统之外的控制殖民地显然表现得像典型的领土，因为它们成功地垄断了大部分诱饵。此外，在超级群落内的 F. pratensis 巢穴周围的顺从物种比在其外部更成功。正如我们的结果所表明的那样，鉴于其行为具有一定的可塑性，且群体规模较小，领地物种可以与其他领地物种共存。然而，正如我们的实地观察所证明的那样，排除也发生了。