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Naturwissenschaften

Title:		Symbiont demand guides resource supply: leaf-cutting ants preferentially deliver their harvested fragments to undernourished fungus gardens
Author(s):		Romer D; Aguilar GP; Meyer A; Roces F;
Address:		"Department of Behavioral Physiology and Sociobiology, Biocenter, University of Wurzburg, Am Hubland, 97074, Wurzburg, Germany. Daniela.Roemer@uni-wuerzburg.de. Department of Behavioral Physiology and Sociobiology, Biocenter, University of Wurzburg, Am Hubland, 97074, Wurzburg, Germany"
Journal Title:		Naturwissenschaften
Year:		2022
Volume:		20220425
Issue:		3
Page Number:		25 -
DOI:		10.1007/s00114-022-01797-7
ISSN/ISBN:		1432-1904 (Electronic) 0028-1042 (Print) 0028-1042 (Linking)
Abstract:		"Leaf-cutting ants are highly successful herbivores in the Neotropics. They forage large amounts of fresh plant material to nourish a symbiotic fungus that sustains the colony. It is unknown how workers organize the intra-nest distribution of resources, and whether they respond to increasing demands in some fungus gardens by adjusting the amount of delivered resources accordingly. In laboratory experiments, we analyzed the spatial distribution of collected leaf fragments among nest chambers in Acromyrmex ambiguus leaf-cutting ants, and how it changed when one of the fungus gardens experienced undernourishment. Plant fragments were evenly distributed among nest chambers when the fungal symbiont was well nourished. That pattern changed when one of the fungus gardens was undernourished and had a higher leaf demand, resulting in more leaf discs delivered to the undernourished fungus garden over at least 2 days after deprivation. Some ants bypassed nourished gardens to directly deliver their resource to the chamber with higher nutritional demand. We hypothesize that cues arising from that chamber might be used for orientation and/or that informed individuals, presumably stemming from the undernourished chamber, may preferentially orient to them"
Keywords:		Animals *Ants/microbiology Fungi Gardens Humans Plants Symbiosis Decentralized control Decision-making Insect-fungus symbiosis Local cues Nutrition Pheromone trail;
Notes:		"MedlineRomer, Daniela Aguilar, Gonzalo Pacheco Meyer, Annika Roces, Flavio eng Germany 2022/04/26 Naturwissenschaften. 2022 Apr 25; 109(3):25. doi: 10.1007/s00114-022-01797-7"