Prey fragmentation and transport modalities were studied in Myrmicaria opaciventris, Platythyrea conradti, Cremtogaster sp., Crematogaster clariventris, Tetramorium aculeatum and Oecophylla longinoda, six tropical ant species with varying levels of adaptation to foraging in the tree canopy. Termites and grasshoppers of different sizes were used as prey and deposited on a hunting arena. After prey capture, we investigated the strategy adopted by each ant species to fragment and transport their prey. The data were analyzed with classification tree, using Chi-squared Automatic Interaction Detection method to find the variation in prey fragmentation strategies and transportation modalities between arboreal ant species in relation with prey type and prey size. The results showed that prey fragmentation did not occur systematically after capture and varied between ant species with prey type and prey size. Studied ant species cut their prey either completely into tiny pieces or partially into two or three large pieces before cutting them totally into tiny pieces or not at all. Fragmentation strategy, induced variation in transport modalities including (a) transport of large pieces, each by a single worker; (b) transport of large pieces, each, by a group of workers; (c) transport of tiny pieces after total cutting, and (c) transport of entire prey in the nest without fragmentation. Prey fragmentation and transport modalities varied between ant species in relation with their level of adaptation to arboreal area.
Published in | Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (Volume 9, Issue 1) |
DOI | 10.11648/j.cbb.20210901.13 |
Page(s) | 21-30 |
Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Ant, Prey Capture, Prey Fragmentation, Hunting
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APA Style
Tadu Zephirin, Messop-Youbi Edith Blandine, Fomekong Lontchi Judicael, Alene Desiree Chantal, Djieto-Lordon Champlain. (2021). Prey Fragmentation and Transport in Six Tropical Arboreal Ant Species. Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, 9(1), 21-30. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cbb.20210901.13
ACS Style
Tadu Zephirin; Messop-Youbi Edith Blandine; Fomekong Lontchi Judicael; Alene Desiree Chantal; Djieto-Lordon Champlain. Prey Fragmentation and Transport in Six Tropical Arboreal Ant Species. Comput. Biol. Bioinform. 2021, 9(1), 21-30. doi: 10.11648/j.cbb.20210901.13
AMA Style
Tadu Zephirin, Messop-Youbi Edith Blandine, Fomekong Lontchi Judicael, Alene Desiree Chantal, Djieto-Lordon Champlain. Prey Fragmentation and Transport in Six Tropical Arboreal Ant Species. Comput Biol Bioinform. 2021;9(1):21-30. doi: 10.11648/j.cbb.20210901.13
@article{10.11648/j.cbb.20210901.13, author = {Tadu Zephirin and Messop-Youbi Edith Blandine and Fomekong Lontchi Judicael and Alene Desiree Chantal and Djieto-Lordon Champlain}, title = {Prey Fragmentation and Transport in Six Tropical Arboreal Ant Species}, journal = {Computational Biology and Bioinformatics}, volume = {9}, number = {1}, pages = {21-30}, doi = {10.11648/j.cbb.20210901.13}, url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cbb.20210901.13}, eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.cbb.20210901.13}, abstract = {Prey fragmentation and transport modalities were studied in Myrmicaria opaciventris, Platythyrea conradti, Cremtogaster sp., Crematogaster clariventris, Tetramorium aculeatum and Oecophylla longinoda, six tropical ant species with varying levels of adaptation to foraging in the tree canopy. Termites and grasshoppers of different sizes were used as prey and deposited on a hunting arena. After prey capture, we investigated the strategy adopted by each ant species to fragment and transport their prey. The data were analyzed with classification tree, using Chi-squared Automatic Interaction Detection method to find the variation in prey fragmentation strategies and transportation modalities between arboreal ant species in relation with prey type and prey size. The results showed that prey fragmentation did not occur systematically after capture and varied between ant species with prey type and prey size. Studied ant species cut their prey either completely into tiny pieces or partially into two or three large pieces before cutting them totally into tiny pieces or not at all. Fragmentation strategy, induced variation in transport modalities including (a) transport of large pieces, each by a single worker; (b) transport of large pieces, each, by a group of workers; (c) transport of tiny pieces after total cutting, and (c) transport of entire prey in the nest without fragmentation. Prey fragmentation and transport modalities varied between ant species in relation with their level of adaptation to arboreal area.}, year = {2021} }
TY - JOUR T1 - Prey Fragmentation and Transport in Six Tropical Arboreal Ant Species AU - Tadu Zephirin AU - Messop-Youbi Edith Blandine AU - Fomekong Lontchi Judicael AU - Alene Desiree Chantal AU - Djieto-Lordon Champlain Y1 - 2021/06/25 PY - 2021 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cbb.20210901.13 DO - 10.11648/j.cbb.20210901.13 T2 - Computational Biology and Bioinformatics JF - Computational Biology and Bioinformatics JO - Computational Biology and Bioinformatics SP - 21 EP - 30 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2330-8281 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cbb.20210901.13 AB - Prey fragmentation and transport modalities were studied in Myrmicaria opaciventris, Platythyrea conradti, Cremtogaster sp., Crematogaster clariventris, Tetramorium aculeatum and Oecophylla longinoda, six tropical ant species with varying levels of adaptation to foraging in the tree canopy. Termites and grasshoppers of different sizes were used as prey and deposited on a hunting arena. After prey capture, we investigated the strategy adopted by each ant species to fragment and transport their prey. The data were analyzed with classification tree, using Chi-squared Automatic Interaction Detection method to find the variation in prey fragmentation strategies and transportation modalities between arboreal ant species in relation with prey type and prey size. The results showed that prey fragmentation did not occur systematically after capture and varied between ant species with prey type and prey size. Studied ant species cut their prey either completely into tiny pieces or partially into two or three large pieces before cutting them totally into tiny pieces or not at all. Fragmentation strategy, induced variation in transport modalities including (a) transport of large pieces, each by a single worker; (b) transport of large pieces, each, by a group of workers; (c) transport of tiny pieces after total cutting, and (c) transport of entire prey in the nest without fragmentation. Prey fragmentation and transport modalities varied between ant species in relation with their level of adaptation to arboreal area. VL - 9 IS - 1 ER -