Populations of the Ant Tetramorium caespitum Latreille

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Abstract
1. The worker populations of a number of marked colonies of the ant Tetramorium caespitum have been estimated by Petersen's mark-recapture method in two consecutive years. 2. At the same time the area of territory used, the wet weight and the head width of workers and the numbers and weights of sexual forms have been obtained. In one year seed production per territory was also estimated. 3. Analysis shows that worker population does not correlate significantly with any of these variates. 4. Territory area, worker size, and male and female sexual production are all positively and significantly correlated. This is taken to indicate that variation in resources influences the production of sexuals (and their precursive large workers) rather than the worker population size. Colony maturity is thus a condition that may be reached at a wide range of colony sizes. 5. Most colonies were mature and the total sexual weights were 43% (1963) and 53% (1964) of the worker biomass. 6. With a food supply estimated at about 240 g/year at least, this ant needs less than 10 g new material a year to continue to survive and emit sexuals.

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