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The Pied Piper: A Parasitic Beetle’s Melodies Modulate Ant Behaviours

Fig 4

Playback experiments.

Behavioural responses of Pheidole pallidula colonies to sound recordings of Paussus favieri (single pulses), P. favieri (trains), Pheidole pallidula queens, P. pallidula soldiers, P. pallidula workers, and to two controls (white noise and silence) are shown. Five benevolent behaviours were observed; no antagonistic behaviour was observed. GLM testing for the effect of sounds and colony showed a significant overall difference in responses occurred within five behaviours (N = 140; Walking: Fstimuli = 22.623, df = 6, P < 0.001, Fnest = 1.253, df = 9, P = 0.284; Antennate: F stimuli = 39.414, df = 6, P < 0.001, Fnest = 1.221, df = 9, P = 0.302; Guarding: F stimuli = 12.942, df = 6, P < 0.001, Fnest = 1.388, df = 9, P = 0.216; Digging: Fstimuli = 2.667, df = 6, P = 0.024, Fnest = 0.667, df = 9, P = 0.735; Staying: Fstimuli = 5.083, df = 6, P = 0.004, Fnest = 1.856, df = 9, P = 0.079). The letters above each column indicate significance (P < 0.05) in pairwise post hoc Tukey tests. The same letter indicates no significant difference within each type of behaviour.

Fig 4

doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0130541.g004