Data from: 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 findings reveal that species with longer worker life expectancies
exhibit higher proneness to rescue endangered nestmates, irrespective of
phylogenetic relatedness. Furthermore, we found no trace of a phylogenetic
signal in the life expectancies or helpfulness of workers belonging to
different species. The results underscore the significance of life
expectancy as a key factor influencing the likelihood of rescue behavior
in ants. This phenomenon warrants further investigation, given the varied
physiologies, life histories, and ecologies observed among species.
Nevertheless, the impact of life expectancy on behavioral patterns in
social insects suggests that this parameter is likely significant across
diverse taxa. Keywords: ants, altruism, Formicidae, life expectancy,
pro-social behavior, rescue behavior.