The value of spatial experience and group size for ant colonies in direct competition.

ABSTRACT: Animals often search for food more efficiently with experience. However, the contribution of experience to foraging success under direct competition has rarely been examined. Here we used colonies of an individually foraging desert ant to investigate the value of spatial experience. First, we trained worker groups of equal numbers to solve either a complex or a simple maze. We then tested pairs of both groups against one another in reaching a food reward. This task required solving the same complex maze that one of the groups had been trained in, to determine which group would exploit better the food reward. The worker groups previously trained in the complex mazes reached the food reward faster and more of these workers fed on the food than those trained in simple mazes, but only in the i

SUBMITTER: Subach A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10084317 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature