Keywords

Behavioral ecology, Myrmecology, Ecology, Ant, Pogonomyrmex badius, P. badius

Abstract

Division of labor is a hallmark of ant societies. Pogonomyrmex badius workers change jobs as they age. The youngest workers care for brood while the oldest ants leave the nest to forage for food, but a small number of workers perform additional, specialized behaviors. We found that door closing is performed by an average of 4.73 workers each evening, and up to 42% of “door-closers” belong to the forager population. Within ~2 hours of sunset, door-closers kick sand to cover the nest entrance, then reenter, leaving the nest entrance plugged with sand and presumably protected from intruders. We monitored door closing behavior year-round to describe the relationship between closing time and environmental factors. Next, we experimentally manipulated nest entrance number to determine if increased demand for doorclosers led to increased allocation to the task of door closing. We compared the number of ants that participated in door closing, the number of door-closers per entrance, and the time spent closing entrances before and after manipulation. Colonies did not increase the total number of ants participating in door closing after adding 1 - 4 additional nest entrances. However, the number of workers allocated per entrance declined significantly, and total time spent closing increased for half of the colonies. This suggests that additional workers do not join the door closing task when demand increases, even when other ants are present on the nest mound. Instead, existing door-closers redistribute across entrances, causing the colony to be more efficient in many cases. This provides evidence that task allocation in P. badius may be regulated by factors other than increased demand for labor and proximity to cues related to necessary tasks. Instead, door-closers may have a lower response threshold to cues related to door closing.

Thesis Completion Year

2026

Thesis Completion Semester

Spring

Thesis Chair

Kwapich, Christina

College

College of Sciences

Department

Biology

Thesis Discipline

Biology

Access Status

Campus Access

Length of Campus Access

5 years

Campus Location

Orlando (Main) Campus

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Restricted to the UCF community until 5-15-2031; it will then be open access.

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Rights Statement

In Copyright