Panteleeva, S.N.

Early development of complex hunting behaviour in ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Sofia N. Panteleeva Dr. Sofia N. Panteleeva, Institute of Animal Systematics and Ecology of Animals, Siberian Branch Russian Academy Sciences, Frunze ul. 11, 630091 Novosibirsk, Russia. E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Myrmecol. News 10: 117 The role of individual and social experience in the scenarios of predatory behaviour has been studied for only a few species of vertebrates. Most researchers do not consider invertebrates to be able to demonstrate flexible behaviour and social learning. Ants are known to possess complex hunting behaviour, including catching difficult-to-handle prey and even group hunting. However, nothing is known about the early development of hunting behaviour in ants or the roles of flexible behaviour and social learning. We recently revealed the hunting technique utilized by ants of the genus Myrmica for jumping springtails (Collembola), and found that ants are able to switch to springtails as mass prey (Reznikova & Panteleeva 2001, Reznikova & Panteleeva 2005). In order to investigate…

Open access, licensed under CC BY 4.0. © 2007 The Author(s).

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