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Classification of ant nest complexes

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Abstract

The nest complex is an intrinsic form of spatial and functional organization of ants, a real structural level of an intrapopulation rank. The proposed classification of ant nest complexes is based on the properties of the elements composing the complexes and on scenarios of settlement development. The stages of life of an ant settlement and the stages of development of the corresponding complex are described (the proto-, meso-, and hypercomplex). The following main species-specific features are used in the classification: the basic level of intracolonial structures (clan, column, pleiad); the nest type (sectional, capsule-like); the mode of colony founding (solitary queen, pleometrosis, temporary social parasitism); the mode of sociotomy (binary division, budding, fragmentation); the definitive colony size (N c ); the presence of a defended territory; the form of polycaly (simple polycaly: PC 1, polycaly with breeding nests: PC 2, polysectional nests: PSN), etc. Based on the data on 120 ant species (including all the well-studied ones) showing clear differentiation into gynes and workers, eight basic social types are distinguished, which are named by their most specific traits: (1) recurrent sociotomy based on a clan; (2) diffuse polycaly; (3) recurrent sociotomy based on a single colony (column); (4) closed (ordinary) polycaly; (5) open (obligate) polycaly; (6) linear settlements; (7) dissipated pleiads; (8) unitary pleiads. The general description of an ant nest complex includes its social type, development stage, and current state. The classification of nest complexes forms the basis for systemic study, use, and protection of ants.

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  1. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 119071, Russia

    A. A. Zakharov

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Original Russian Text © A.A. Zakharov, 2015, published in Zoologicheskii Zhurnal, 2015, Vol. 94, No. 10, pp. 1138–1150.

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Zakharov, A.A. Classification of ant nest complexes. Entmol. Rev. 95, 959–971 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0013873815080047

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