Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 14 November 1980:
Vol. 210. no. 4471, pp. 732 - 739
DOI: 10.1126/science.210.4471.732
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Territorial Strategies in Ants

Bert Hölldobler 1 and Charles J. Lumsden 1

1 Professor of biology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology Laboratories, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138

Several features in social insects, particularly in ants, make the behavioral organization of territoriality considerably more complex than that of solitary animals. The establishment and maintenance of territories are based on a division of labor and a complex communication system. The analyses of territorial strategies in ants comprise the study of the design and spatiotemporal structure of the territory, as well as the social mechanisms through which the insect society pursues its territorial strategy. The geometric and behavioral organization of the absolute territories of the African weaver ants (Oecophylla longinoda) and harvester ants (Pogonomyrmex), and of the "spatiotemporal territories" of honey ants (Myrmecocystus mimicus) are described, and simple cost-benefit models are developed to illustrate the economic defensibility of each type of territory.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Food resources, chemical signaling, and nest mate recognition in the ant Formica aquilonia.
J. Sorvari, P. Theodora, S. Turillazzi, H. Hakkarainen, and L. Sundstrom (2008)
Behav. Ecol. 19, 441-447
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Experimental analysis of territory size in a population of the fire ant Solenopsis invicta.
E. S. Adams (2003)
Behav. Ecol. 14, 48-53
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Self-organized asymmetries in ant foraging: a functional response to food type and colony needs.
S. Portha, J.-L. Deneubourg, and C. Detrain (2002)
Behav. Ecol. 13, 776-781
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Loss of Intraspecific Aggression in the Success of a Widespread Invasive Social Insect.
D. A. Holway, A. V. Suarez, and T. J. Case (1998)
Science 282, 949-952
   Abstract »    Full Text »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)