Abstract
The Central Australian desert ant Melophorus bagoti maintains ground-nesting colonies in the semi-desert habitat. These ants manage waste by dumping items outside the nest. To examine this process, we placed organic and non-organic materials that are associated with either low or high pathogenic risk around or into the nest and observed the nest’s response. We found that generally, ants dumped high-pathogenic-risk materials (dead larvae, dead ants of the colony, foraged food, moth, and non-nest cicada exoskeleton) further from the nest than low-pathogenic-risk ones (sand, buffel grass, cookies), with the exception of (organic) larval shells from their own nest, which were also dumped close to the nest. This pattern of dumping suggests that these ants choose their dumping distance based on how spoilable the experimental materials are.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 225-232 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Insectes Sociaux |
Volume | 70 |
Issue number | 2 |
Early online date | 6 Apr 2023 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jun 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Copyright the Author(s) 2023. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.Keywords
- Ant colony
- Hygienic behaviour
- Insect behaviour
- Waste management