Non-injurious, collective ritualized displays may have evolved in some species of ants as a means of resolving contests for key resources, without causing a drain in worker numbers through injury. Colonies of the Australian meat ant, Iridomyrmex purpureus, deploy numerous workers to engage in collective displays, which are widely understood to be involved in maintaining exclusive territories. A combination of field surveys and behavioral assays revealed that display grounds do not delimit borders that define exclusive territories. Rather, the proportion of workers from a focal colony found in a quadrat declines monotonically with distance from the nest. In addition, we documented collective displays around food trees, where workers congregated in greater densities and engaged in more aggressive behavior. These results refute the assumption that colonies of I. purpureus establish territorial boundaries by collective displays. Rather these collective displays may be related to the defense of specific resources, including food trees and nest sites. The difference in the level of aggression among displaying workers at different locations may reflect a balance between the benefits of defending a particular resource and an unappreciated cost of escalation.

译文

非伤害性的,集体仪式化的展示可能已经在某些种类的蚂蚁中发展起来,作为解决关键资源竞赛的一种手段,而不会因伤害而导致工人人数流失。澳大利亚肉蚁Iridomyrmex purpureus的殖民地部署了许多工人进行集体展示,人们普遍认为这参与了维护专属领土的活动。实地调查和行为分析的结合表明,显示场地不会划定定义专属领土的边界。相反,在四方中发现的焦点殖民地的工人比例随着与巢穴的距离而单调下降。此外,我们记录了食物树周围的集体展示,那里的工人以更高的密度聚集在一起,并从事更具侵略性的行为。这些结果驳斥了I. purpureus殖民地通过集体展示建立领土边界的假设。相反,这些集体展示可能与特定资源的防御有关,包括食物树和巢穴。在不同位置显示工人攻击水平差异可能反映了捍卫特定资源的好处与未得到重视的升级成本之间的平衡。

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