Außergewöhnliches Beuteverhalten unter Nestern einer Kolonie der Kleinen Roten Waldameise Formica polyctena Förster (Hymenoptera: Formicidae).

Abstract

After referring to the social relations of the nests of some Formica species and to the characteristics of the habitat and the special food conditions of a colony of the small red forest ant Formica polyctena Forst., under observation for many years, a report states the unusual preying behaviour of one of the nests of this colony towards another nest. The occupants of a nest with a smaller number of individuals (males) do not defend themselves (non-hostile attitude = koinokarteria), on the contrary, they feed the worker ants coming from the neighbouring more densely populated nest (of females), are carried, however, dead or living, to the nest of females, which consequently increases still more. The question arises how far the decrease in number of the nest of males and, in addition, the conveyance of highly valuable food from the nest of males to the nest of females, which particularly needs this food for breeding females, will be favourable to the development of the sexual index of young reproductives and thus to the growth of the whole colony.