Colony-level aggression escalates with the value of food resources

BMC Ecology and Evolution · 3 authors, 3 centres

AI SUMMARY

FIDELITY 100%

POPULATIONNatural field populations of Australian meat ant (Iridomyrmex purpureus) colonies

INTERVENTIONManipulation of food resource value through five-day dietary pre-feeding (carbohydrate vs. protein supplementation) to alter colony-level valuation of contested tuna

COMPARISONHigh-value food contests (colonies pre-fed carbohydrate) vs. low-value food contests (colonies pre-fed protein)

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AGENT 01 · STRUCTURED SUMMARY

TRACE TO SOURCE

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TL;DR

This field experimental study manipulated the value of contested food resources for Australian meat ant colonies and found that colonies deployed more workers and engaged in more lethal grappling behavior when competing over higher-value food, confirming that contest escalation theory applies to group contests.

Full summary

608 CHARS

Using the Geometric Framework for nutrition, the authors manipulated the value of contested food (tuna) by varying the dietary history of competing meat ant colonies. Colonies previously supplemented with carbohydrates valued tuna more highly than colonies previously supplemented with protein, as confirmed by compensatory foraging assays. In staged field contests, colonies competing over higher-value food deployed more workers and were more likely to escalate to physical grappling behaviour. The study uniquely removed individual nutritional confounds because workers transport rather than consume tuna.

PICO

PPOPULATION

Natural field populations of Australian meat ant (Iridomyrmex purpureus) colonies

IINTERVENTION

Manipulation of food resource value through five-day dietary pre-feeding (carbohydrate vs. protein supplementation) to alter colony-level valuation of contested tuna

OOUTCOME

Number of workers deployed to contest and frequency of lethal grappling behaviour

STUDY TYPE

other

SPECIALTY

animal science

SUMMARISED BY

AI pipeline

FIDELITY CHECK

100% · A

ORIGINAL PAPER

PMC10189932

Colony-level aggression escalates with the value of food resources

BMC Ecology and Evolution

READ THE FULL PAPER

ABSTRACT

Abstract Background Theory predicts that the level of escalation in animal contests is associated with the value of the contested resource. This fundamental prediction has been empirically confirmed by studies of dyadic contests but has not been tested experimentally in the collective context of group-living animals. Here, we used the Australian meat ant Iridomyrmex purpureus as a model and employed a novel field experimental manipulation of the value of food that removes the potentially confounding effects of nutritional status of the competing individual workers. We draw on insights from the Geometric Framework for nutrition to investigate whether group contests between neighbouring colonies escalate according to the value to the colony of a contested food resource. Results First, we show that colonies of I. purpureus value protein according to their past nutritional intake, deploying more foragers to collect protein if their previous diet had been supplemented with carbohydrate rather than with protein. Using this insight, we show that colonies contesting more highly valued food escalated the contest, by deploying more workers and engaging in lethal ‘grappling’ behaviour. Conclusion Our data confirm that a key prediction of contest theory, initially intended for dyadic contests, is similarly applicable to group contests. Specifically, we demonstrate, through a novel experimental procedure, that the contest behaviour of individual workers reflects the nutritional requirements of the colony, rather than that of individual workers. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12862-023-02117-x. Keywords: Aggression, Escalation, Group contest, Social insect

CITATION EXPORT

Shaolin Han, Ben L Phillips, Mark A Elgar. Colony-level aggression escalates with the value of food resources. BMC Ecology and Evolution. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-023-02117-x

AUTHORS

3 · 3 CENTRES

Shaolin Han, Ben L Phillips, Mark A Elgar

1School of Biosciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010 Australia
2Present Address: School of Biological Sciences, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
3Present Address: Centre for Immunology & Infection, New Territories, Hong Kong SAR, China