Adventures Among Ants - Mark W. Moffett [181]
13. Abduction in the Afternoon
1. DA Grasso, A Mori, P D’Ettorre, F Le Moli 1994, Intraspecific raids and territoriality in Polyergus rufescens, Ethol. Ecol. Evol. 3: 81–87; and H Topoff, B LaMon, L Goodloe, M Goldstein 1984, Social and orientation behavior of Polyergus breviceps during slave-making raids, Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 15: 273–279.
2. William H. McNeill, The Pursuit of Power: Technology, Armed Force, and Society since A.D. 1000 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982), p. 131.
3. Dan Stahler, personal communication; Scott Creel and Nancy Marushka Creel, The African Wild Dog: Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002), p. 76.
4. H Topoff, D Bodoni, P Sherman, L Goodloe 1987, The role of scouting in slave raids by Polyergus breviceps, Psyche 94: 261–270.
5. See, e.g., J Dobrza´nska, J Dobrza´nski 1989, Controversies on the subject of slave-raids in Amazon ants (genus Polyergus), Acta Neurobiol. Exp. 49: 367–379.
6. See, e.g., E Janssen, B Hölldobler, HJ Bestmann 1999, A trail pheromone component of the African stink ant, Pachycondyla (Paltothyreus) tarsata, Chemoecology 9: 9–11.
7. Free-living Formica ants separate their foraging behavior into similar phases of linear travel and irregular searching, which suggests this strategy has ancient roots; see JFA Traniello, V Fourcassié, TP Graham 1991, Search behavior and foraging ecology of the ant Formica schaufussi: Colony-level and individual patterns, Ethol. Ecol. Evol. 3: 35–47.
8. In fact, the chemical trail of a successful raid lasts long enough for the Amazons to reuse it during the next day or two, if a raid is very productive. It is unknown whether a scout is required for these subsequent raids.
9. EO Wilson 1975, Slavery in ants, Sci. Am. 232: 32–36. According to one interpretation, the Amazon ants continue this tradition of territorial warfare: if Amazons identified their Formica slaves as nestmates, they would raid Formica colonies as if they were attacking their own species: H Topoff 1990, The evolution of slave-making behavior in the parasitic ant genus Polyergus, Ethol. Ecol. Evol. 2: 284–287.
10. Part of the reason for the absence of slavery among army ants is that few of their species attack other army ants, which means that successfully rearing slaves, which are typically close relatives (see chapter 12), from prey booty is unlikely.
11. Their proclivity for territorial battle may explain how it is that enslaved workers of these species sometimes join their masters on slave raids.
12. For a general discussion of tactical deception, see RW Byrne, N Corp 2004, Neocortex size predicts deception rate in primates, Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 271: 1693–1699. In another example of tactical deception, honeypot ants that find termite prey will instigate tournaments near competing nests to distract their rivals; see B Hölldobler 1981, Foraging and spatiotemporal territories in the honey ant Myrmecocystus mimicus, Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 9: 301–314. Bert Hölldobler informs me that genetic studies show slaves taken after such tournaments are common. Honeypot ants were first introduced in chapter 4 in a discussion of how the combatants determine if they are outnumbered.
13. E Cool-Kwait, H Topoff 1984, Raid organization and behavioral development in the slave-making ant Polyergus lucidus, Insectes Soc. 31: 361–374.
14. H Topoff 1985, Effect of overfeeding on raiding behavior in the western slave-making ant Polyergus breviceps, Natl. Geogr. Res. 1: 437–441.
15. RJ Stuart, MW Moffett 1994, Recruitment communication and pheromone trails in the neotropical ants Leptothorax (Nesomyrmex) spininodis and L. (N.) echinatinodis, Experientia 50: 850–852.
16. This hypothesis as well as the importance of a seasonal brood cycle are reviewed by Bert Hölldobler and Edward O. Wilson, The Ants (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990), p. 447.
17. As we saw for the capacity of ants to delay eating in order to group-transport food to a nest (chapter 5), such forbearance is rare among animals generally;