Fig 1.
Average number of fire ants recruiting to ground-level or elevated crickets.
Crickets were placed at (A) ground-level or (B) 30cm up a wooden dowel, prior to experimental treatment. Each bar represents average recruitment for a single colony of origin (n = 2); error bars show standard error.
Fig 2.
Regional differences in recruitment of fire ants to ground-level or elevated crickets.
Colonies were collected in Texas (light diamond, n = 17) or Mississippi (dark square, n = 16) and crickets were placed at ground-level (A and B) or 30cm up a wooden dowel (C and D). (A) and (C) show average number of ants observed at the cricket over time while (B) and (D) show the average time to resource discovery and time to formation of a recruiting trail. Error bars show standard error.
Fig 3.
Colony differences in fire ant foraging behavior before and after exposure to different foraging habitats.
Graphs show average number of ants (A) at a ground-level cricket, (B) at a cricket elevated 30cm up a wooden dowel, (C) active outside the nest and (D) exploring a novel structure. Each line represents average for a colony of origin (n = 2), for fire ant colonies from Texas (left) and Mississippi (right) before and after five weeks exposure to different foraging habitat treatments.
Table 1.
Analysis of behavior before and after exposure to different foraging habitats.
Fig 4.
Foraging habitat and regional effects on fire ant foraging behavior.
Average number of ants (A) at a ground-level cricket, (B) at a cricket placed 30cm up a wooden dowel, (C) active outside the nest and (D) exploring a novel structure, before and after five weeks exposure to different foraging habitats. Graphs show colonies grouped by foraging habitat treatment (left: elevated, dark diamond (n = 33) vs. ground-level, light square (n = 33)) and by region of origin (right: Texas, light triangle (n = 17) vs. Mississippi, dark square (n = 16)). Error bars show standard error.
Fig 5.
Effects of behavior on fire ant colony performance measures.
Graphs show (A) Ground-level recruitment versus colony food collection and (B) extra-nest activity versus colony size (final dry weight of workers and brood).
Fig 6.
Foraging behavior of fire ants from different colony lineages.
Graphs show average extra-nest activity (dark), recruitment to cricket between ten and forty minutes (medium), and exploratory activity (light) of each colony lineage (C1-C15, n = 3). Error bars show standard error.