Nest Entrance Architecture and the Regulation of Foraging Activity in Desert Harvester Ants.

ABSTRACT: The architecture of an ant colony's nest entrance modulates the regulation of activity in and out of the nest. This study considers how the architecture of nests of the desert harvester ant Pogonomyrex barbatus facilitates the regulation of foraging activity in an arid environment. Colonies must spend water, in water lost to evaporation when outside the nest, to obtain food and water. Previous work shows that encounters in the chamber just inside the entrance function as the valve to manage this tradeoff by regulating whether foragers decide to leave the nest on another trip. Here both complete and partial excavations, and observations inside active nests, were made in a long-term study population in New Mexico, US. Both the overall nest architecture and the set of chambers around t

SUBMITTER: Gordon DM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12413562 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature