Food searching behaviour in the ant Formica schaufussi (Hymenoptera, Formicidae): Response of naive foragers to protein and carbohydrate food

Abstract

Foragers of the ant Formica sckaufussi tend to return to previously rewarding sites to search for food. The search tactic employed depends on the type of food contacted during the previous foraging trip: a carbohydrate-stimulated local search is of greater duration and is more spatially concentrated in the vicinity of the site of the prior find than a protein-stimulated local search. Individual foraging experience appears to play a minor role in the modulation of search behaviour. Workers having no foraging experience showed a higher frequency of return to the site of a prior find, moved more rapidly and searched with greater persistence, thoroughness, and spatial accuracy after collecting single loads of carbohydrate food. Search tactics were not related to a worker's age. The results suggest that search behaviour in F. schaufussi is strongly influenced by a resource-related predisposition that allows a forager to adjust its search effort according to the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of protein and carbohydrate food. © 1993 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.