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  • Foraging leaf cutting ants carrying leaf fragments through a long acrylic glas tunnel
Chair of Behavioral Physiology & Sociobiology

Roces lab - Behavioral ecology

Ant colonies are highly-organized societies without central control. Due to their impressive diversity, ants offer the opportunity to comparatively analyze the mechanisms underlying individual behavior, the coordination of social responses, as well as the adaptive significance of a given set of behavioral strategies. Our research is aimed, in a broad sense, at understanding the organization of ant societies. We investigate individual decision making, behavioral plasticity, information flows, division of labor, and collective behaviors in ant colonies, in the contexts of food collection, nest building, and the control of nest climate. Leaf-cutting ants and nectar-feeding ants are our research animals.

Projects

  • Decision-making and information flow in foraging leaf-cutting ants.
  • Energetics of decision-making in ants: costs of foraging and digging behavior.
  • Feeding behavior, communication, and the organization of foraging in nectar-feeding ants.
  • Building behavior and the control of nest climate in leaf-cutting ants.

Selected publications

  • Cosarinsky, M. I., Römer, D., & Roces, F. Nest Turrets of <i>Acromyrmex</i> Grass-Cutting Ants: Micromorphology Reveals Building Techniques and Construction Dynamics. Insects, 11(2), 140. https://doi.org/10.3390/insects11020140
  • Halboth, F., & Roces, F. Underground anemotactic orientation in leaf-cutting ants: perception of airflow and experience-dependent choice of airflow direction during digging. The Science of Nature, 104(9), 82. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-017-1504-2
  • Römer, D., Halboth, F., Bollazzi, M., & Roces, F. Underground nest building: the effect of CO2 on digging rates, soil transport and choice of a digging site in leaf-cutting ants. Insectes Sociaux, 65, 305-313. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00040-018-0615-x
  • Saverschek, N., & Roces, F. Foraging leafcutter ants: olfactory memory underlies delayed avoidance of plants unsuitable for the symbiotic fungus. Animal Behaviour, 82(3), 453-458. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2011.05.015
  • Weidenmüller, A., Mayr, C., Kleineidam, C. J., & Roces, F. Preimaginal and Adult Experience Modulates the Thermal Response Behavior of Ants. Current Biology, 19(22), 1897-1902. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2009.08.059