Foraging ecology and community organization in desert seed-eating ants

Update Item Information
Publication Type Journal Article
School or College College of Science
Department Biology
Creator Davidson, Diane W.
Title Foraging ecology and community organization in desert seed-eating ants
Date 1977
Description Granivorous ants in the southwestern deserts of the United States are characterized by species-specific colony foraging behaviors that determine their efficiencies at utilizing seeds from different density distributions. Workers search for food either in groups or as individuals, and these feeding strategies represent specializations for high and low density resources respectively. While gathering experimental seeds, simultaneously supplied in clumped and dispersed distributions, feeding by group foragers focused on the high density resource patches, while individual foragers harvested seeds predominantly from the dispersed distribution, which required that prey be independently discovered. Collecting native seeds from unmanipulated environments, individual foragers tended to spend proportionately more time searching and experience lower foraging success than did group foragers in the same local habitat. During a period of high seed abundance, group foragers collected a much narrower range of prey types than did individual foragers. Colonies of Pogonomyrmex rugosus exhibited a mixed foraging strategy, with the most distinct feeding columns occurring during a period of peak seed abundance. Among group foragers, greatest activity coincided with periods of relatively high seed densities and low climatic stress, and these species utilized tactics such as seed storage, hibernation, and estivation to weather less favorable periods in a resting state. Individual foragers were active at intermediate levels during less favorable periods. Although high and low density seed resources are not renewed independently of one another, density specialization appears to promote coexistence between group and individual foragers. Their capacity to stably partition resources in this way should depend on (1) the degree of difference in their efficiencies at exploiting different density distributions of seeds and (2) the availability of seeds in the habitat as a function of seed density. In more mesic habitats, where seeds are renewed more frequently and probably also in larger pulses, group foraging species are proportionately more abundant.
Type Text
Publisher Ecological Society of America
Volume 58
Issue 4
First Page 725
Last Page 737
Subject Ants; Arizona; California; Coexistence; Communities; Density specialization; Desert granivores; Foraging strategies; Insects; New Mexico; Resource partitioning
Subject LCSH Ants; Granivores; Desert ecology
Language eng
Bibliographic Citation Davidson, Diane W. Foraging ecology and community organization in desert seed-eating ants. (1977). 58 (4), 725-737
Rights Management (c) Ecological Society of America
Format Medium application/pdf
Format Extent 1,264,567 Bytes
Identifier ir-main,4409
ARK ark:/87278/s6bk1wtc
Setname ir_uspace
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Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6bk1wtc