---
_id: '9742'
abstract:
- lang: eng
text: 'Repeated pathogen exposure is a common threat in colonies of social insects,
posing selection pressures on colony members to respond with improved disease-defense
performance. We here tested whether experience gained by repeated tending of low-level
fungus-exposed (Metarhizium robertsii) larvae may alter the performance of sanitary
brood care in the clonal ant, Platythyrea punctata. We trained ants individually
over nine consecutive trials to either sham-treated or fungus-exposed larvae.
We then compared the larval grooming behavior of naive and trained ants and measured
how effectively they removed infectious fungal conidiospores from the fungus-exposed
larvae. We found that the ants changed the duration of larval grooming in response
to both, larval treatment and their level of experience: (1) sham-treated larvae
received longer grooming than the fungus-exposed larvae and (2) trained ants performed
less self-grooming but longer larval grooming than naive ants, which was true
for both, ants trained to fungus-exposed and also to sham-treated larvae. Ants
that groomed the fungus-exposed larvae for longer periods removed a higher number
of fungal conidiospores from the surface of the fungus-exposed larvae. As experienced
ants performed longer larval grooming, they were more effective in fungal removal,
thus making them better caretakers under pathogen attack of the colony. By studying
this clonal ant, we can thus conclude that even in the absence of genetic variation
between colony members, differences in experience levels of brood care may affect
performance of sanitary brood care in social insects.'
article_processing_charge: No
author:
- first_name: Claudia
full_name: Westhus, Claudia
last_name: Westhus
- first_name: Line V
full_name: Ugelvig, Line V
id: 3DC97C8E-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
last_name: Ugelvig
orcid: 0000-0003-1832-8883
- first_name: Edouard
full_name: Tourdot, Edouard
last_name: Tourdot
- first_name: Jürgen
full_name: Heinze, Jürgen
last_name: Heinze
- first_name: Claudie
full_name: Doums, Claudie
last_name: Doums
- first_name: Sylvia
full_name: Cremer, Sylvia
id: 2F64EC8C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
last_name: Cremer
orcid: 0000-0002-2193-3868
citation:
ama: 'Westhus C, Ugelvig LV, Tourdot E, Heinze J, Doums C, Cremer S. Data from:
Increased grooming after repeated brood care provides sanitary benefits in a clonal
ant. 2015. doi:10.5061/dryad.7kc79'
apa: 'Westhus, C., Ugelvig, L. V., Tourdot, E., Heinze, J., Doums, C., & Cremer,
S. (2015). Data from: Increased grooming after repeated brood care provides sanitary
benefits in a clonal ant. Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.7kc79'
chicago: 'Westhus, Claudia, Line V Ugelvig, Edouard Tourdot, Jürgen Heinze, Claudie
Doums, and Sylvia Cremer. “Data from: Increased Grooming after Repeated Brood
Care Provides Sanitary Benefits in a Clonal Ant.” Dryad, 2015. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.7kc79.'
ieee: 'C. Westhus, L. V. Ugelvig, E. Tourdot, J. Heinze, C. Doums, and S. Cremer,
“Data from: Increased grooming after repeated brood care provides sanitary benefits
in a clonal ant.” Dryad, 2015.'
ista: 'Westhus C, Ugelvig LV, Tourdot E, Heinze J, Doums C, Cremer S. 2015. Data
from: Increased grooming after repeated brood care provides sanitary benefits
in a clonal ant, Dryad, 10.5061/dryad.7kc79.'
mla: 'Westhus, Claudia, et al. Data from: Increased Grooming after Repeated Brood
Care Provides Sanitary Benefits in a Clonal Ant. Dryad, 2015, doi:10.5061/dryad.7kc79.'
short: C. Westhus, L.V. Ugelvig, E. Tourdot, J. Heinze, C. Doums, S. Cremer, (2015).
date_created: 2021-07-28T08:52:53Z
date_published: 2015-07-09T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2023-02-23T10:30:52Z
day: '09'
department:
- _id: SyCr
doi: 10.5061/dryad.7kc79
main_file_link:
- open_access: '1'
url: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.7kc79
month: '07'
oa: 1
oa_version: Published Version
publisher: Dryad
related_material:
record:
- id: '2161'
relation: used_in_publication
status: public
status: public
title: 'Data from: Increased grooming after repeated brood care provides sanitary
benefits in a clonal ant'
type: research_data_reference
user_id: 6785fbc1-c503-11eb-8a32-93094b40e1cf
year: '2015'
...