D3303: Is it a good rock crevice? Understanding nest-site selection of a rock cavity dwelling ant species, Temnothorax rugatulus, in their natural habitat
Tuesday, November 12, 2024
9:00 AM – 5:00 PM MST
Location: Phoenix Convention Center, Exhibit Hall 6, PCC
Nests play a crucial role in social insects, providing protection from predators, a space for communal activities, and buffering against environmental extremes. While many ant species construct subterranean nests, a significant number live inside preformed cavities such as tree hollows, nuts, and rock crevices. Cavity-dwelling ants have limited ability to modify their nests, restricting their capacity to optimize nest shape, size, location, and other features. Consequently, a colony’s success is expected to depend on the inherent qualities of the cavity it selects to live in. This study characterized the rock crevice nests of the ant Temnothorax rugatulus in their montane pine forest habitat, where they experience both warm summers and freezing winters. We focused on parameters hypothesized to influence the regulation of nest temperature, including the thickness of the crevice’s rock wall, its compass orientation and inclination, and the forest canopy closure at the site, all of which influence the amount of solar radiation the crevices receive. To measure the microenvironment experienced by the ants within their nests, we placed data loggers within occupied crevices to monitor temperature and humidity from late fall through spring. We compared the measured values to those recorded in the surrounding environment, to assess how well nests buffered environmental extremes. The results of this study will complement extensive prior work on colony emigration and nest site selection by Temnothorax ants, providing novel insights into their poorly-understood nesting ecology, and that of cavity-dwelling ants more generally.
.png)
