Extended phenotypes and foraging restrictions: ant nest entrances and resource ingress in leaf-cutting ants

Several factors may restrict the acquisition of food to below the levels predicted by the optimization theory. However, how the design of structures that animals build for foraging restricts the entry of food is less known. Using scaling relationships, we determined whether the design of the entranc...

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Autores principales:	Rodríguez-Planes, L.I., Farji-Brener, A.G.
Formato:	JOUR
Materias:	Atta cephalotes Costa Rica foraging leaf-cutting ants tropical rain forest Animalia Atta
Acceso en línea:	http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12110/paper_00063606_v51_n2_p178_RodriguezPlanes
Aporte de:	Biblioteca Digital - Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales (UBA) de Universidad de Buenos Aires

id	todo:paper_00063606_v51_n2_p178_RodriguezPlanes
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spelling	todo:paper_00063606_v51_n2_p178_RodriguezPlanes2023-10-03T14:05:14Z Extended phenotypes and foraging restrictions: ant nest entrances and resource ingress in leaf-cutting ants Rodríguez-Planes, L.I. Farji-Brener, A.G. Atta cephalotes Costa Rica foraging leaf-cutting ants tropical rain forest Animalia Atta Atta cephalotes Several factors may restrict the acquisition of food to below the levels predicted by the optimization theory. However, how the design of structures that animals build for foraging restricts the entry of food is less known. Using scaling relationships, we determined whether the design of the entrances of leaf-cutting ant nests restricts resource input into the colony. We measured nests and foraging parameters in 25 nests of Atta cephalotes in a tropical rain forest. Ant flux was reduced to up to 60% at nest entrances. The width of all entrances per nest increased at similar rates as nest size, but the width of nest entrances increased with the width of its associated trail at rates below those expected by isometry. The fact that entrance widths grow slower than trail widths suggests that the enlargement of entrance holes does not reach the dimensions needed to avoid delays when foraging rates are high and loads are big. The enlargement of nest entrances appears to be restricted by the digging effort required to enlarge nest tunnels and by increments in the risk of inundation, predator/parasitoid attacks and microclimate imbalances inside the nest. The design of the extended phenotypes can also restrict the ingress of food into the organisms, offering additional evidence to better understand eventual controversies between empirical data and the foraging theory. Abstract in Spanish is available with online material. © 2019 The Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation JOUR info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ar http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12110/paper_00063606_v51_n2_p178_RodriguezPlanes
institution	Universidad de Buenos Aires
institution_str	I-28
repository_str	R-134
collection	Biblioteca Digital - Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales (UBA)
topic	Atta cephalotes Costa Rica foraging leaf-cutting ants tropical rain forest Animalia Atta Atta cephalotes
spellingShingle	Atta cephalotes Costa Rica foraging leaf-cutting ants tropical rain forest Animalia Atta Atta cephalotes Rodríguez-Planes, L.I. Farji-Brener, A.G. Extended phenotypes and foraging restrictions: ant nest entrances and resource ingress in leaf-cutting ants
topic_facet	Atta cephalotes Costa Rica foraging leaf-cutting ants tropical rain forest Animalia Atta Atta cephalotes
description	Several factors may restrict the acquisition of food to below the levels predicted by the optimization theory. However, how the design of structures that animals build for foraging restricts the entry of food is less known. Using scaling relationships, we determined whether the design of the entrances of leaf-cutting ant nests restricts resource input into the colony. We measured nests and foraging parameters in 25 nests of Atta cephalotes in a tropical rain forest. Ant flux was reduced to up to 60% at nest entrances. The width of all entrances per nest increased at similar rates as nest size, but the width of nest entrances increased with the width of its associated trail at rates below those expected by isometry. The fact that entrance widths grow slower than trail widths suggests that the enlargement of entrance holes does not reach the dimensions needed to avoid delays when foraging rates are high and loads are big. The enlargement of nest entrances appears to be restricted by the digging effort required to enlarge nest tunnels and by increments in the risk of inundation, predator/parasitoid attacks and microclimate imbalances inside the nest. The design of the extended phenotypes can also restrict the ingress of food into the organisms, offering additional evidence to better understand eventual controversies between empirical data and the foraging theory. Abstract in Spanish is available with online material. © 2019 The Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation
format	JOUR
author	Rodríguez-Planes, L.I. Farji-Brener, A.G.
author_facet	Rodríguez-Planes, L.I. Farji-Brener, A.G.
author_sort	Rodríguez-Planes, L.I.
title	Extended phenotypes and foraging restrictions: ant nest entrances and resource ingress in leaf-cutting ants
title_short	Extended phenotypes and foraging restrictions: ant nest entrances and resource ingress in leaf-cutting ants
title_full	Extended phenotypes and foraging restrictions: ant nest entrances and resource ingress in leaf-cutting ants
title_fullStr	Extended phenotypes and foraging restrictions: ant nest entrances and resource ingress in leaf-cutting ants
title_full_unstemmed	Extended phenotypes and foraging restrictions: ant nest entrances and resource ingress in leaf-cutting ants
title_sort	extended phenotypes and foraging restrictions: ant nest entrances and resource ingress in leaf-cutting ants
url	http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12110/paper_00063606_v51_n2_p178_RodriguezPlanes
work_keys_str_mv	AT rodriguezplanesli extendedphenotypesandforagingrestrictionsantnestentrancesandresourceingressinleafcuttingants AT farjibrenerag extendedphenotypesandforagingrestrictionsantnestentrancesandresourceingressinleafcuttingants
_version_	1782030073818251264

Extended phenotypes and foraging restrictions: ant nest entrances and resource ingress in leaf-cutting ants

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