An experimental study of colony-founding in pine saplings by queens of thearboreal ant, Crematogaster ashmeadi

Newly mated queens of the arboreal ant Crematogaster ashmeadi initiate colo nies in old beetle galleries in the dead branches of longleaf pine trees. I n a study by Hahn (1996), a number of tree characteristics were correlated with the number of newly-mated queens in those trees, with branch length th e best indicator of queen presence. Three of these characteristics, tree he ight, dead branch length, and the number of dead branches were tested in an experiment to see which, if any, the queens were using to choose a tree. B oth tree height and the number of dead branches significantly influenced qu een choice: shorter trees (4-5 m) had more queens than tall ones (7-9 m), a nd trees with 8 branches had significantly more queens than trees with 2 br anches. Branch length had no effect on the number of queens. These findings suggest that newly mated Crematogaster ashmeadi queens search for founding trees on the basis of the height of a sapling and its number of dead branc hes. Modes of searching are discussed.