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The foraging ecology of the army ant Eciton rapax: an ergonomic enigma?
Author(s) -
BURTON JAMES L.,
FRANKS NIGEL R.
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
ecological entomology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.865
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1365-2311
pISSN - 0307-6946
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2311.1985.tb00542.x
Subject(s) - foraging , biology , ecology , predation , understory , population , predator , ant , ant colony , demography , computer science , canopy , sociology , algorithm , ant colony optimization algorithms
. 1. The army ant Eciton rapax (F. Smith) produces longer raid systems than any other member of its genus and it is a specialist predator of forest floor and understory ants such as species of Camponotus, Odontomachus and Pachycondyla. 2. Allometrical analysis confirms that E. rapax is the only member of its genus without distinct physical castes among its workers: its foraging population is entirely monomorphic and there are no majors. 3. The workers of E. rapax are distributed over a considerable size range, and there are distinct divisions of labour within these colonies: small workers tend to stay in the nests and among the larger foraging workers those retrieving prey items are significantly bigger than the rest. 4. An analysis of foraging efficiency and worker performance in E. rapax suggests that transport costs, resulting from the great distances that workers travel during raids and emigrations, are one of the selection pressures that have favoured the evolution of large monomorphic workers in this species.