Data from: Running in the rain: Impact of water droplets on tandem running recruitment in a tropical ant

Rain hampers essential activities like foraging, guarding and frequently
cause damage to the dwelling especially for organisms like ants that live
in subterranean nests. Diacamma indicum, a tropical ant, is known to
relocate to higher ground by means of tandem running and to build nest
mounds when they face rain during monsoon. But what happens if they have
to relocate when water droplets are falling on them? We addressed this
question by subjecting treatment tandem pairs to water droplets on their
body (a proxy to low level rainfall) along their journey to the new nest
and compared it with controls. Treatment tandem runs showed significantly
higher number of interruptions during the trip and failures to complete
the tandem run to new nest. The location at which the treatment was given
(near the old nest, midway or near the new nest) did not influence the
outcomes. Despite these low levels of water falling on them, tandem
leaders continued to recruit to the new nest and completed their
relocation without any significant change in the dynamics. This experiment
shows the credibility of tandem run as a robust method of transportation
even under adverse conditions like rain and highlights the need to explore
how subterranean organisms like ants have adapted to monsoon and manage
their lives through the months of heavy rainfall.