Author： VAN VORHIS KEY S. E. BAKER T. C.
Publisher： Entomological Society of America
ISSN： 1938-2901
Source： Annals of the Entomological Society of America, Vol.79, Iss.2, 1986-03, pp. : 283-288
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Abstract
Recruitment of nestmates to food by Argentine ant workers, Iridomyrmex humilis (Mayr), was observed in the laboratory. After sampling a newly introduced food source, workers returning to their nest rapidly antennated nestmates about the head and antennae and sometimes appeared to offer briefly liquid food when they encountered other workers on the trail or in the nest. Immediately after such contact with a recruiting ant, quiescent ants in the nest were observed to become active and exit the nest. Such recruited ants followed experimental trails significantly longer without leaving the trail than did unrecruited ants. Ants following trails toward or away from their nest deposited trail marks, but fewer were deposited when contact with the trail was lost. Marks were more likely to be deposited when the trail was rediscovered. An artificially induced gap in the trail was therefore repaired from the edges inward.
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