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Background  In insects, circadian clocks play a key role in enhancing fitness by regulating life history traits such as developmental time and adult lifespan. These clocks use environmental light/dark (LD) cycles to fine-tune a wide range of behavioral and physiological processes. To study the effect of environmental LD conditions on pre-adult fitness components, we used two dark-dwelling sympatric species of ants (the night active  Camponotus compressus  and the day active  Camponotus paria ), which normally develop underground and have fairly long pre-adult developmental time.    Results  Our results suggest that ants develop fastest as pre-adults when maintained under constant light (LL), followed closely by 12:12 hr light/dark (LD), and then constant darkness (DD). While light exposure alters developmental rates of almost all stages of development, the overall pre-adult development in LL is speeded-up (relative to DD) by ~37% (34 days) in  C. compressus  and by ~35% (31 days) in  C. paria . In LD too, development is faster (relative to DD) by ~29% (26 days) in  C. compressus  and by ~28% (25 days) in  C. paria . Pre-adult viability of both species is also higher under LL and LD compared to DD. While pre-adult development time and viability is enhanced in LL and LD, clutch-size undergoes reduction, at least in  C. compressus .    Conclusion  Exposure to light enhances pre-adult fitness in two dark-dwelling species of  Camponotus  by speeding-up development and by enhancing viability. This suggests that social ants use environmental light/dark cycles to modulate key life history traits such as pre-adult development time and viability.

Exposure to light enhances pre-adult fitness in two dark-dwelling sympatric species of ants