Meeting Abstract

P2.117  Monday, Jan. 5  Effects of vine characteristics on foraging behavior of tropical ants SILVERI, Cheryl/M*; YANOVIAK, Stephen/P; University of Arkansas, Fayetteville; University of Arkansas, Little Rock cmsilve@uark.edu

Foraging is potentially hazardous and requires energy. For central point foragers such as ants, costs increase with increasing travel distance. Thus, it is advantageous for ants to establish foraging trails that provide efficient access to distant resources. Vines are a conspicuous structural component of tropical forests and commonly serve as foraging corridors for ants. Here we examined how two basic physical properties of vines affect foraging patterns in tropical ants: a) vine size (diameter) vs. forager size (body length) across a range of ant species, and b) substrate roughness and foraging velocity in the arboreal species Crematogaster carinata. Our prediction that large ants would be excluded from small vines was not supported; the largest ants (Paraponera clavata and Pachycondyla spp.) essentially occurred on the entire range of sampled vine diameters (1-180 mm). Substrate roughness did not significantly affect foraging velocities of C. carinata at roughness magnitudes < 1 mm (ca. 33% of the ants’ body length). However, average velocities for the fastest and slowest ants in each trial were significantly slower on coarse substrates (particle size ca. 1 mm). Our results suggest that ants are opportunistic with respect to the vines they use while foraging under natural conditions. However, substrate roughness (e.g., different types of bark) can influence foraging speed, which may have broader implications for interspecific interactions and access to patchy resources.