ArticleBiology letters2014
Keep the nest clean: survival advantages of corpse removal in ants.
Article in Biology letters, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed.
- Social immunity in a supercolonial invasive ant: Nest structure confers immune function.The Journal of animal ecology · 2026Article
- Modulation of C. elegans behavior, fitness, and lifespan by AWB/ASH-dependent death perception.Current biology : CB · 2025Article
- Social organization of necrophoresis: insights into disease risk management in ant societies.Royal Society open science · 2024Article
- Multiomic interpretation of fungus-infected ant metabolomes during manipulated summit disease.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Varying impact of neonicotinoid insecticide and acute bee paralysis virus across castes and colonies of black garden ants, Lasius niger (Hymenoptera: Formicidae).Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Article
- Prophylactic Avoidance of Hazardous Prey by the Ant HostInsects · 2020Article
- Long-term effects of neonicotinoid insecticides on ants.Communications biology · 2020Article
- Article
- Corpse management of the invasive Argentine ant inhibits growth of pathogenic fungi.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Hygiene Defense Behaviors Used by a Fungus-Growing Ant Depend on the Fungal Pathogen Stages.Insects · 2019Article
- Review
- Fine-tuned intruder discrimination favors ant parasitoidism.PloS one · 2019Article
- Managing the risks and rewards of death in eusocial insects.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2018Review
- The impact of the built environment on health behaviours and disease transmission in social systems.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2018Review
- Consumption, contact and copulation: how pathogens have shaped human psychological adaptations.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2018Review
- Impact of soil contamination on the growth and shape of ant nests.Royal Society open science · 2018Article
- Co-founding ant queens prevent disease by performing prophylactic undertaking behaviour.BMC evolutionary biology · 2017Article
- Social life and sanitary risks: evolutionary and current ecological conditions determine waste management in leaf-cutting ants.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2016Article
- Nest etiquette--where ants go when nature calls.PloS one · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Sociality increases exposure to pathogens. Therefore, social insects have developed a wide range of behavioural defences, known as 'social immunity'. However, the benefits of these behaviours in terms of colony survival have been scarcely investigated. We tested the survival advantage of prophylaxis, i.e. corpse removal, in ants. Over 50 days, we compared the survival of ants in colonies that were free to remove corpses with those that were restricted in their corpse removal. From Day 8 onwards, the survival of adult workers was significantly higher in colonies that were allowed to remove corpses normally. Overall, larvae survived better than adults, but were slightly affected by the presence of corpses in the nest. When removal was restricted, ants removed as many corpses as they could and moved the remaining corpses away from brood, typically to the nest corners. These results show the importance of nest maintenance and prophylactic behaviour in social insects.
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