Published October 10, 2003
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Carton nest building and trophobiont manipulation in the south-east Asian ant Dolichoderus sulcaticeps (Mayr 1870) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
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Rohe, W., Maschwitz, U. (2003): Carton nest building and trophobiont manipulation in the south-east Asian ant Dolichoderus sulcaticeps (Mayr 1870) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Journal of Natural History 37 (23): 2835-2848, DOI: 10.1080/0022293021000007408, URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0022293021000007408
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- urn:lsid:plazi.org:pub:FFB7FFDBFFEFFFE8FFD3BE11A072FFA2
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- The migrating herder D. cuspidatus has given up any nest building in east Bornean and west Malaysia populations. Only in Sumatra ephemeral soil material occasionally covers the nesting site. Also, in one mountain population of Dolichoderus tuberifer similar observations were made, but in no other herdsmen species. The carton leaf nests of D. sulcaticeps belong to the most complicated carton nest structures that we have found in SE Asia. Only one further rare D. species ( patens) with the same nest structure was found. This was in the crown of a fallen tree in the Gombak valley. The workers who differed only slightly in colour and size from those of D. sulcaticeps, build similar leaf nests (Rohe, 1990). D. patens is very similar to D. sulcaticeps in behaviour to trail pheromones (Attygalle et al., 1998) and trophobiont manipulation but not in alarm behaviour (Rohe and Rupprecht, 2001). All other non-herder D. species, either produce simple one chambered stable nests on living plants ( Rohe, 1991) or produce rather irregular nests, without any trophobionts, somewhere on dead or living plant material. The nests of D. sulcaticeps represent a compromise between stable nest pavilions with trophobionts and the non-stall nest type. Its additional nest chambers, which have no direct contact with the living plant surface, yield much more space to the ant colony than pure stable nests.
- Our observations have brought thorough insight to the way this complicated type of nest is constructed. The nests, which are situated on the rainproof underside of leaves consist of a solid and elastic carton material. We were not able to prove the use of any sticky substance for fixation of its plant material. Though the nest building workers form a pulp with the help of collected water, glue usage could not fully be excluded. Use of carton glue generally seems to be a problem in ants. Sticky larval silk is used to stabilize cartons, in several formicine ants. How ants generally produce durable carton material without silk, is not yet fully understood. Only in two Lasius species it is known that specific fungi are cultivated in the carton on a honey dew substrate. The long fungal hyphae give the carton mass a firm elastic consistency (Maschwitz and Holldobler, 1970). But this is in hollow logs and not in free hanging nests. The stress from desiccation, even in tropical forests and specially for arboreal nests, is much higher. As with Lasius fuliginosus, D. sulcaticeps also shows division of labour during carton nest building.