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Day/night upper thermal limits differ within Ectatomma ruidum ant colonies
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Day/night upper thermal limits differ within Ectatomma ruidum ant colonies

A. S. Nelson, T. Scott, M. Barczyk, T. P. McGlynn, A. Avalos, E. Clifton, A. Das, A. Figueiredo, L. L. Figueroa, M. Janowiecki, …
Insectes sociaux, v 65(1), pp 183-189
2018

Abstract

Biomedical and Life Sciences Entomology Life Sciences Short Communication
In the tropics, daily temperature fluctuations can pose physiological challenges for ectothermic organisms, and upper thermal limits may affect foraging activity over the course of the day. Variation in upper thermal limits can occur among and within species, and for social insects such as ants, within colonies. Within colonies, upper thermal limits may differ among individuals or change for an individual throughout the day. Daytime foragers of the Neotropical ant Ectatomma ruidum have higher critical thermal maxima (CT max ) than nocturnal foragers, but whether these differences occur among or within colonies was not previously known. We investigated the potential mechanisms accounting for day/night variation in CT max of E. ruidum foragers by testing whether CT max varied among or within colonies or due to individuals within colonies acclimating to changes in temperature over a short time scale (3 h). We found within- but not among-colony differences in CT max on a diel cycle, and we found no evidence for among- or within-colony partitioning of foraging times by individual workers. Individuals did not acclimate to experimental manipulations of temperature, although additional experiments with more ecologically relevant temperature manipulations are needed to rule out this mechanism. In summary, we have shown that day/night differences in upper thermal limits can occur within ant colonies, but further investigation is needed to elucidate the mechanisms driving this variation.

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Entomology
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