Kay et al RSPB-2013-2374 selfgrooming data

In June 2012, we assessed whether diet affects allogrooming, an established mechanism of social immunity in ants (Hughes et al. 2002). We assigned 24 colonies to either the 1P:3C or 3P:1C diet, as above. After an 18-day rearing period, we created solitary ant and worker group sets and treated them with either Metarhizium or the control Triton-X solution. We then immediately began assaying grooming behaviour after Walker & Hughes (2011). We observed behaviour for 30-s periods at every 10 min for 60 min, as most grooming occurs immediately after solution application (pers. obs., also Walker & Hughes, 2009). We recorded the number of antennal self-grooming and allo-grooming events. Behaviours that occurred for more than a 5-s period were split into multiple events.