Are the ants capable to learn the nest-building activity atypical to the species? (a study of Formica cinerea Mayr.)

Abstract

Formica cinerea ants are the species digging their nests in the ground, so they never handle thicker building materials. Under conditions unfavorable to their normal existence, brought about by several years of continued meteorological disturbances, one colony of ants established itself in an atypical and unique in this species mound-shaped nest, similar to the nests of the hill-building species of Formica. On the basis of observations of individual building workers it was determined that most of the F. cinerea ants failed, during the whole summer, to achieve improvement in the technique of carrying building material. Moreover, they all used to drop it loosely, which is done only by the naive individuals of the hill-building species of Formica. It is suggested that the deficiency in manipulatory learning in F. cinerea is due to the lack of hereditary elements of hill-building behavior.