Individual and Group Personalities Characterise Consensus Decision‐Making in an Ant. (10th April 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Cronin, Adam L.; Wright, J.
• Is Part Of: Ethology. Volume 121:Number 7(2015:Jul.)
• Page Start: 703
• Page End: 713
• Publication Date: 2015-04-10
• Subjects: Animal behavior -- Periodicals; 591.5
• DOI: 10.1111/eth.12386
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0179-1613

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" id="eth12386-abs-0001"> <title>Abstract</title> <p>Non‐human animals can exhibit idiosyncratic behaviour across individuals in much in the same way as humans. Animals with specific personalities may have advantages in some environments, and this idiosyncrasy may thus be of considerable ecological and evolutionary importance. In group‐living organisms, personality can occur at the level of the group as well as that of the individual. However, at present, we have very little understanding of the possible benefits of group‐level personality, and how this is linked with individual personality. In this study, I examine the influence of individual and group personality during the process of colony migration in the Japanese ant, <italic>Myrmecina nipponica</italic>. These ants use a consensus decision process to decide among alternatives when searching for a new home. Individuals contribute to this process by scouting for new nest sites, recruiting nestmates by laying pheromone trails, and carrying brood to the new site, although whether these roles are consistent among individuals and how roles are distributed within and between colonies remain unclear. Individual contributions to the nest‐site selection process were quantified over five repeated relocations in five colonies. Results demonstrate that contributions to the relocation effort were highly skewed within the colonies and that individuals were consistent in their contributions over repeated relocation events. Furthermore, the distribution of effort differed between colonies, indicating that intercolony differences in composition of behavioural types resulted in colony‐level personality. While these differences did not lead to any detectable difference in relocation performance between colonies in the simple experimental arrangement used, colony personality could influence decision outcomes in more complex environments.</p> </abstract>