Be meek or be bold? A colony-level behavioural syndrome in ants

Consistent individual variation in animal behaviour is nearly ubiquitous and has important ecological and evolutionary implications. Additionally, suites of behavioural traits are often correlated, forming behavioural syndromes in both humans and other species. Such syndromes are often described by testing for variation in traits across commonly described dimensions (e.g. aggression and neophobia), independent of whether this variation is ecologically relevant to the focal species. Here, we use a variety of ecologically relevant behavioural traits to test for a colony-level behavioural syndrome in rock ants (Temnothorax rugatulus). Specifically, we combine field and laboratory assays to measure foraging effort, how colonies respond to different types of resources, activity level, response to threat and aggression level. We find evidence for a colony level syndrome that suggests colonies consistently differ in coping style—some are more risk-prone, whereas others are more risk-averse. Ad...动物行为中的稳定个体差异几乎普遍存在，且具有重要的生态学与进化学意义。此外，多组行为性状往往存在相关性，在人类与其他物种中均会形成行为综合征（behavioural syndrome）。此类行为综合征通常通过检测常见描述维度下的性状差异（如攻击性与畏新性）来界定，而不考量该差异是否与研究目标物种的生态学需求相关。本研究采用多种与生态学相关的行为性状，对石蚁（Temnothorax rugatulus）的蚁群水平行为综合征进行检测。具体而言，我们结合野外与实验室测定方法，对觅食投入、蚁群对不同资源类型的响应、活动水平、威胁响应以及攻击性水平进行量化。我们发现了蚁群水平行为综合征的相关证据，表明蚁群在应对风格上存在稳定差异：部分蚁群更倾向冒险，而另一部分则更为规避风险。Ad...