Novel cooperative antipredator tactics of an ant specialized against a snake

Abstract

Eusocial insects can express surprisingly complex cooperative defence of the colony. Brood and reproductive castes typically remain in the nest and are protected by workers' various antipredator tactics against intruders. In Madagascar, a myrmicine ant, Aphaenogaster swammerdami , occurs sympatrically with a large blindsnake, Madatyphlops decorsei . As blindsnakes generally specialize on feeding on termites and ants brood by intruding into the nest, these snakes are presumably a serious predator on the ant. Conversely, a lamprophiid snake, Madagascarophis colubrinus , is considered to occur often in active A . swammerdami nests without being attacked. By presenting M . colubrinus , M . decorsei and a control snake, Thamnosophis lateralis , at the entrance of the nest, we observed two highly specialized interactions between ants and snakes: the acceptance of M . colubrinus into the nest and the cooperative evacuation of the brood from the nest for protection against the ant-eating M . decorsei . Given that M . colubrinus is one of the few known predators of blindsnakes in this area, A . swammerdami may protect their colonies against this blindsnake by two antipredator tactics, symbiosis with M . colubrinus and evacuation in response to intrusion by blindsnakes. These findings demonstrate that specialized predators can drive evolution of complex cooperative defence in eusocial species.