Life expectancy in ants explains variation in helpfulness, regardless of phylogenetic relatedness

Rescue behavior aims at removing an individual from harm. Ants are particularly known for such helpfulness and, perhaps not coincidentally, also show the highest level of social organization in the animal kingdom, i.e., eusociality. However, even among social species such as ants, there is a huge variation in rescue proneness, and little is understood about the underlying causes of this variation. In this study, we explore the relationship between helpfulness in the form of rescue and life expectancy, focusing on 14 ant species with diverse phylogenetic affiliations. We posit that species with longer worker life expectancies are more prone to engaging in rescue actions. To test this, we assessed worker lifespan in each species and conducted behavioral tests simulating entrapment scenarios involving a nestmate ensnared by an artificial obstacle. Observed behaviors involved contact with the nestmate, digging around it, pulling at its body parts, and biting the entrapping obstacle. Our fin..., , , # Data from: Life expectancy in ants explains variation in helpfulness, regardless of phylogenetic relatedness

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.wdbrv15zx](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.wdbrv15zx)

## Description of the data and file structure

The data were collected to investigate the relationship between life expectancy and rescue behavior in ants. We gathered ants belonging to 14 species. We collected 5 ant colonies of each species (in total, 70 ant colonies were collected). We analyzed survivorship of ants through long-term monitoring of mortality in standardized conditions and we analyzed ant rescue behavior via simulations of rescue scenarios using a controlled entrapment setup. We also included phylogenetic analyses of the studied ant species.

### Files and variables

#### File: Dataset\_Ants\_LifeExpectancy\_RescueBehaviour\_2024.xlsx

**Description:** The **Survivorship sheet** contains data about the mortality of ants. We monitored mortality daily until day 250 since the esta...