DOI: 10.5061/dryad.m37pvmdff
title: Data from: Behavioral and hormonal responses to urbanization in ants

description: Urbanization has profound effects on biological communities. Many
 organisms cannot persist in anthropogenic environments, while others may
 adapt to urban conditions. Behavioral traits can facilitate this
 adaptation and predict how species might respond to urbanization. We
 studied the behavior of the odorous house ant (Tapinoma sessile) which is
 common in both natural (i.e., forests) and urban areas. Relative to
 natural environments, colonies in urban areas are typically more
 aggressive and have many more workers and queens. To examine how this
 variation may influence other behaviors, we compared the exploratory
 behavior of T. sessile workers and colonies from natural and urban
 environments. We found repeatable variation in exploratory behavior,
 suggesting workers have distinct behavioral types. Additionally, colonies
 from natural environments had higher exploration and foraging activity
 relative to urban colonies. Activity also varied among ants with different
 behavioral roles - workers that were foraging were more exploratory than
 workers taken from the nest or that were engaged in a defensive role
 (i.e., recruited to the location of a different colony). Finally, we
 identified a potential proximate mechanism that might be influencing
 activity. Treatment with the hormone octopamine led to increased levels of
 individual exploration and colony-level foraging activity for colonies
 from both habitat types. However, natural variation in worker octopamine
 levels did not vary between environments. Together, these results suggest
 that exploratory behavior may play a role in adaptation to urbanization
 and that octopamine may be a key driver for exploratory and foraging
 behavior in odorous house ants.
description: # Data from: Behavioral and hormonal responses to urbanization in ants
 Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.m37pvmdff](10.5061/dryad.m37pvmdff) ##
 Description of the data and file structure This was a study exploring
 behavioral and hormonal differences in odorous house ants. Details of
 methods can be found in the manuscript, which will be linked here upon
 publication.  ### Files and variables #### File: collective_foraging.csv
 **Description:**  ##### Variables * time: time at which ants were sampled 
 * time_minutes: time since start of study ants were sampled *
 foraging_rate: number of workers present at foraging box * colony:
 location ants were collected from * type: type of environment ants were
 collected from * replicate: which replicate of this colony data
 corresponds to * treatment: defines if colony was treated with control or
 octopamine concentration #### File: LC-MS_feeding.csv **Description:** 
 ##### Variables * sample_ID: unique ID for each sample (which is pooled
 with multiple workers) * replicate: which replicate of this colony data
 corresponds to * colony: location ants were collected from * type: type of
 environment ants were collected from * treatment: defines if workers were
 treated with control or octopamine concentration * area_intensity:
 relative concentration of octopamine  #### File: LC-MS_standing.csv
 **Description:**  ##### Variables * sample_ID: unique ID for each sample
 (which is pooled with multiple workers) * colony: location ants were
 collected from * nest: replicate within a location  * type: type of
 environment ants were collected from * area_intensity: relative
 concentration of octopamine #### File: exploration_DOL.csv
 **Description:**  ##### Variables * replicate: which replicate of this
 colony data corresponds to * population: location ants were collected from
 * id: unique identifier * location: where in experimental setup ant was
 sampled from (foraging, nest, or competition box) * type: type of
 environment ants were collected from * exploration: number of sections
 explored #### File: repeatability.csv **Description:**  ##### Variables *
 id: unique ID for individual worker * population: location ants were
 collected from * type: type of environment ants were collected from *
 exploration: number of sections explored * trial: which trial number for a
 given worker this exploration occurred in  #### File: ind_behavior.csv
 **Description:**  ##### Variables * id: unique ID for individual worker *
 population: location ants were collected from * type: type of environment
 ants were collected from * exploration: number of sections explored ####
 File: R_Code_Neumann_2025.R **Description:**  * R Code for analysis ##
 Code/software Full R Code file is attached. Analysis was conducted in
 RStudio.