Md. Breed et al., Thief workers and variation in nestmate recognition behavior in a ponerineant, Ectatomma ruidum, INSECT SOC, 46(4), 1999, pp. 327-331
Our findings give new insight into the relationship between nestmate recogn
ition and cleptobiosis, intraspecific thievery of newly collected food item
s, in a neotropical ponerine ant, Ectatomma ruidum. The expression of discr
imination of nestmates from non-nestmates varied among local aggregations o
ff. ruidum in a population at Barro Colorado Island, Panama. This result is
due to differences in the behavior of the guard ants among aggregations, r
ather than differences in the expression of recognition cues by ants. Baiti
ng experiments show that E. ruidum colonies in Panama have a greater tenden
cy to have overlapping home ranges than a similar population in Costa Pica.
The pattern of cleptdbiosis, however, is strikingly similar between the Pa
namanian and Costa Pican populations.