Foraging Behavior of the Neotropical Ant Ectatomma vizottoi (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)

The ecological success of ants hinges on their ability to adjust foraging strategies. Foragers are crucial for securing food resources and display heterogeneities in exploring their foraging area, learning new environmental cues to successfully return to their nests. Despite reports that old workers typically handle foraging and abiotic factors that impact foraging of ants, the specifics of the foraging behavior of Ectatomma vizottoi — such as time dedicated to food search, trajectory, and area — remain unknown. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the foraging behavior of this species. We observed foragers from 12 colonies during 126 field trips, recording behaviors, forager displacements, and estimating prey size. Foragers of this species devoted most of their time searching for food, adopting a sit-and-wait behavior in most foraging trips until concluding the search; encounters with conspecifics from different colonies resulted in aggression. A positive correlation was found between time spent outside the nest and total forager trajectory. While no preferential directions were observed, foraging areas did not overlap with foraging areas of neighboring nests. Therefore, this species is territorial, and its foraging appears to be influenced by various factors, including prey availability and size, and competition.