Meeting Abstract

P1-47   -   Plasticity of energetic savings during nest initiation in harvester ants Matis, N*; Myers, K; Iskander, C; Clark, R; Siena College, Loudonville, NY r11clark@gmail.com

Nest-founding is an energetically intensive period of the ant colony life cycle for queens, and also a period where mortality rates are high and selective pressures are strong. At present, the extent to which the energetic costs of nest initiation are fixed vs. context-dependent is unknown. We used queens of the seed-harvester ant Pogonomyrmex californicus to evaluate the extent to which social context and the propensity to cooperate influence the energetic demands of nest establishment. Queens of this species vary geographically in whether they naturally cooperate with each other to start a new nest. We collected newly mated queens from populations that either have or lack this history of cooperation, and created treatment groups of either paired or solitary foundress queens. We then measured queen respiration patterns multiple times across the nest initiation period: prior to nest excavation, after excavating, and during the early foraging and brood care stages. We also quantified overall queen excavation rates and the total nest volume queens or pairs excavated, as indices of individual effort and total work performed. While analyses are still ongoing, once complete they will help to reveal the nature of selective forces acting during this sensitive life stage, and pinpoint to what extent energetic benefits are an important component of the suite of benefits of cooperation in this context.