--- _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' ...