| Popis: |
Do ants ‘talk’? If so, how important is talking in ant societies? Chemical communication, through pheromones for example, was thought to be the main communication tool in ant societies; however, a major question is whether chemical substances alone can control highly differentiated social behaviours. In this study, we focused on the ‘talk’ of agricultural ants, key organisms in the Neotropical ecosystem, and conducted a detailed acoustic analysis. Our results indicate that in fungus-growing ants, acoustic communication is a much more frequent and critical factor than previously believed. The frequency of stridulatory sound-production recordings from the ants were found to be significantly correlated with social structure complexity. Structural analysis indicated that both the area and number of slits in the stridulatory acoustic organs were significantly correlated with body size. The ability of leaf-cutting ants to maintain fungus gardens was significantly lower in the sound-inhibited group than in the pheromone secretion-inhibited group. These results suggest that ants that have become ‘chattier’ may induce altruistic behaviours and create more complex societies. The findings of this study may be applicable not only to social evolution studies but also for effectively controlling ant behaviours. |
