"This one spectacular ant. It's called an Indian jumping ant (Harpegnathos saltator). And here, when it gets a little tap on the back, you'll see why it's

In social insects, active ovaries have been associated with a suite of physiological and behavioral characteristics that together can be considered to represent a social insect reproductive syndrome. Included in this syndrome is a decrease in locomotor or movement activity. In the ponerine ant, Harpegnathos saltator, workers are capable of sexual reproduction, and when a colony’s queen dies, some workers assume her role and become gamergates—workers with queen-like physiology. Though morphologically identical, behaviorally gamergates appear “inactive”, “slow”, and display “minimal movement”, while non-reproductive workers appear relatively “fast” and “active”. While these differences in movement activity have been reported anecdotally, to our knowledge, they have never been investigated experimentally. Here, we quantify and statistically compare two measures of movement activity for H. saltator gamergates and non-reproductive workers over a period of weeks to test these reported differences. We found gamergates had an average daily displacement at most two-thirds that of workers and an eighth the likelihood of being observed in transit. Our findings quantitatively demonstrate movement activity differences between H. saltator gamergates and non-reproductive workers, and verify this aspect of the social insect reproductive syndrome for the gamergates of this model ant species.

Foro de hormigas y comunidad dedicada a la cría, hormigueros, mirmecología, taxonomía, biología del comportamiento y cualquier área relacionada con los formícid