Daily Thermal Fluctuations Experienced by Pupae via Rhythmic Nursing Behavior Increase Numbers of Mushroom Body Microglomeruli in the Adult Ant Brain.

Social insects control brood development by using different thermoregulatory strategies. Camponotus mus ants expose their brood to daily temperature fluctuations by translocating them inside the nest following a circadian rhythm of thermal preferences. At the middle of the photophase brood is moved to locations at 30.

Long-term avoidance memory formation is associated with a transient increase in mushroom body synaptic complexes in leaf-cutting ants.

Long-term behavioral changes related to learning and experience have been shown to be associated with structural remodeling in the brain. Leaf-cutting ants learn to avoid previously preferred plants after they have proved harmful for their symbiotic fungus, a process that involves long-term olfactory memory. We studied the dynamics of brain microarchitectural changes after long-term olfactory memory formation following avoidance learning in Acromyrmex ambiguus.

Environmental temperature affects the dynamics of ingestion in the nectivorous ant Camponotus mus.

Environmental temperature influences physiology and behavior in animals in general and is particularly determinant in ectotherms. Not least because temperature defines metabolism and body temperature, muscle activity in insects also strongly depends on this factor. Here, we analyzed how environmental temperature influences the dynamics of ingestion due to its effect on the sucking pump muscles in the nectivorous ants Camponotus mus.

Asymmetrical behavioral response towards two boron toxicants depends on the ant species (Hymenoptera: Formicidae).

Urban ants are a worldwide critical household pests, and efforts to control them usually involve the use of alimentary baits containing slow-acting insecticides. A common toxicant used is boron, either as borax or boric acid. However, the presence of these compounds can affect the consumption of baits by reducing their acceptance and ingestion.

Serotonin depresses feeding behaviour in ants.

Feeding behaviour is a complex functional system that relies on external signals and the physiological state of the animal. This is also the case in ants as they vary their feeding behaviour according to food characteristics, environmental conditions and - as they are social insects - to the colony's requirements. The biogenic amine serotonin (5-HT) was shown to be involved in the control and modulation of many actions and processes related to feeding in both vertebrates and invertebrates.

Sucking pump activity in feeding behaviour regulation in carpenter ants.

Modulation of liquid feeding-rate would allow insects to ingest more food in the same time when this was required. Ants can vary nectar intake rate by increasing sucking pump frequency according to colony requirements. We analysed electrical signals generated by sucking pump activity of ants during drinking solutions of different sucrose concentrations and under different carbohydrate-deprivation levels.

Nectar intake rate is modulated by changes in sucking pump activity according to colony starvation in carpenter ants.

Dynamics of fluid feeding has been deeply studied in insects. However, the ability to vary the nectar-intake rate depending only on the carbohydrate deprivation has been clearly demonstrated only in Camponotus mus ants. When insect morphometry and fluid properties remain constant, changes in intake rate could only be attributed to variations in sucking pump activity.

Electrical signals during nectar sucking in the carpenter ant Camponotus mus.

Ants of the same size can vary their intake rate of a given sucrose solution depending on the colony's needs for carbohydrates. As this capacity has not yet been described for another insect, the question of how they can do that was the focus of our work. When viscosity and ant-morphometry remain constant, changes in intake rate can only be attributed to the sucking forces.