The removal of corpses (aka ‘necrophoric behavior’) is critical to sanitation in ant colonies. However, little is known about differences in the necrophoric responses of Solenopsis invicta workers towards corpses of nestmates and non-nestmates. We introduced corpses of S. invicta workers from either intracolony (i.e., nestmate) or intercolony (i.e., non-nestmate) origin at the entrance of artificial nests, and recorded workers’ aggressive responses and necrophoric behaviors for analysis. Solenopsis invicta workers displayed distinct responses towards corpses of different origins. Specifically, resident workers were more likely to remove fresh non-nestmate corpses than nestmate corpses, but there was no difference regarding corpses that had been dead for 15 min or longer. Resident workers reacted more aggressively to, and removed more quickly, fresh non-nestmate corpses than corpses of their nestmates. On the other hand, there was no significant difference in the removal time between nestmate and non-nestmate corpses that had been dead for 15 min or longer. Resident workers always displayed stronger aggressiveness towards non-nestmate corpses than nestmate corpses, excepting to corpses that had been dead for 6 h, which elicited a response. No significant correlation between the removal times and aggressiveness levels were detected in any treatments. It remains to be tested whether this differential response is adaptive in how it influences colony fitness and competition.

中文翻译：

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狼蛛（膜翅目：蚁科）工人对同伴和非同伴尸体的差异行为反应。

去除尸体（又称“死灵行为”）对于蚂蚁殖民地的环境卫生至关重要。然而，鲜为人知的是，在的necrophoric反应差异红火蚁工人对nestmates和非nestmates的尸体。我们在人工巢穴的入口处引入了来自殖民地（即巢友）或殖民地（即非巢友）起源的S. invicta工人的尸体，并记录了工人的攻击性反应和夜蛾行为以进行分析。狼尾草工人对不同来源的尸体表现出不同的反应。具体来说，与巢状尸体相比，居民工人更可能移走新鲜的非巢状尸体，但是死亡15分钟或更长时间的尸体没有差异。与巢友的尸体相比，居民工人对新的非巢穴尸体的反应更加积极，并且移走得更快。另一方面，死了15分钟或更长时间的巢伴侣和非巢伴侣尸体的去除时间没有显着差异。居民工人对非巢穴尸体的攻击性总是比巢穴尸体强，除了已经死亡6小时的尸体引起了反应。在任何处理中均未检测到去除时间与侵略性水平之间有显着相关性。