Long-term memory of individual identity in ant queens
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Long-term memory of individual identity in ant queens. / Dreier, Stéphanie Agnès Jeanine; Van Zweden, Jelle Stijn; D'Ettorre, Patrizia.
I: Biology Letters, Bind 3, Nr. 4, 22.10.2007, s. 459-462.Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › fagfællebedømt
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Long-term memory of individual identity in ant queens
AU - Dreier, Stéphanie Agnès Jeanine
AU - Van Zweden, Jelle Stijn
AU - D'Ettorre, Patrizia
N1 - Paper id:: 10.1098/rsbl.2007.0224
PY - 2007/10/22
Y1 - 2007/10/22
N2 - Remembering individual identities is part of our own everyday social life. Surprisingly, this ability has recently been shown in two social insects. While paper wasps recognize each other individually through their facial markings, the ant, Pachycondyla villosa, uses chemical cues. In both species, individual recognition is adaptive since it facilitates the maintenance of stable dominance hierarchies among individuals, and thus reduces the cost of conflict within these small societies. Here, we investigated individual recognition in Pachycondyla ants by quantifying the level of aggression between pairs of familiar or unfamiliar queens over time. We show that unrelated founding queens of P. villosa and Pachycondyla inversa store information on the individual identity of other queens and can retrieve it from memory after 24h of separation. Thus, we have documented for the first time that long-term memory of individual identity is present and functional in ants. This novel finding represents an advance in our understanding of the mechanism determining the evolution of cooperation among unrelated individuals.
AB - Remembering individual identities is part of our own everyday social life. Surprisingly, this ability has recently been shown in two social insects. While paper wasps recognize each other individually through their facial markings, the ant, Pachycondyla villosa, uses chemical cues. In both species, individual recognition is adaptive since it facilitates the maintenance of stable dominance hierarchies among individuals, and thus reduces the cost of conflict within these small societies. Here, we investigated individual recognition in Pachycondyla ants by quantifying the level of aggression between pairs of familiar or unfamiliar queens over time. We show that unrelated founding queens of P. villosa and Pachycondyla inversa store information on the individual identity of other queens and can retrieve it from memory after 24h of separation. Thus, we have documented for the first time that long-term memory of individual identity is present and functional in ants. This novel finding represents an advance in our understanding of the mechanism determining the evolution of cooperation among unrelated individuals.
KW - Faculty of Science
U2 - doi:10.1098/rsbl.2007.0224
DO - doi:10.1098/rsbl.2007.0224
M3 - Journal article
VL - 3
SP - 459
EP - 462
JO - Biology Letters
JF - Biology Letters
SN - 1744-9561
IS - 4
ER -
ID: 1563183