DOI: 10.5061/dryad.d2547d88b
title: Data from: Genetic diversity in tempo determines foraging range in ants

description: The foraging behavior of a colony arises from the activity of individual
 workers.  In this paper we explore the phenotypic differences
 among the workers of the western harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex occidentalis
 in order to understand the temporal pattern of foraging in colonies.
  We know that the genetic diversity of colonies influences the
 temporal pattern of foraging: with greater genetic diversity colonies
 begin foraging earlier and forage for greater duration.   We test
 two mechanisms to account for this pattern.  The Temperature
 Hypothesis predicts that early foragers will be more active at lower
 temperatures than late foragers and will be the first workers to initiate
 foraging.  Late foragers will be more active at high
 temperatures.  The Tempo Hypothesis predicts that early foragers
 will be the first to forage because they have the higher overall tempo of
 activity at all temperatures.   We measure the movement activity
 of samples of early and late foragers from 32 colonies over a range of
 temperatures from 9-37̊C.  We find that early workers are more
 active at all temperatures than late workers, supporting the Tempo
 Hypothesis.  Early and late foragers tend to belong to different
 patrilines, suggesting that there is a genetic basis for the difference in
 the tempo of behavior.  We also find that colonies that have
 greater number of patrilines, due to greater mating frequency by the
 queen, have a greater range temporal range of foraging.  
description: The data were collected from the movement activity of early and
 late foragers from naturally occurring colonies of Pogonomyrmex
 occidentalis.  Early workers were the first workers to begin foraging in
 the morning while late workers were the last to forage in the morning.
  The movement activity was measured from video image differencing over a
 range of temperatures.  We report the movement for ten minute periods for
 individual workers at each temperature from  9-37̊C.  We also report the
 patriline identity for each worker within each colony.
description: # Data from: Genetic diversity in tempo determines foraging range in ants
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.d2547d88b](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.d2547d88b) These three data files are for the paper: Genetic diversity in tempo determines foraging range in ants. The first file is ‘activity data.txt’ The 7 columns are: WorkerID                              This is the unique worker identifier for all data. The numbers refer to the colony that the worker belongs to, an E                                                 or L that identifies the worker as either an early or late forager and the last pair of numbers that indicate the                                                 worker identity within the colony Temp                                     The temperature at which the activity data were collected Mean                                     The mean activity per minute at that temperature (degrees C) Worker                                  The designation of the worker identity within a colony and early/late category (typically 1-12) Colony                                   The colony designation for each worker Early                                       Whether the worker is an early forager (=1) or a late forager (=0) Ant                                         The designation of worker identity within a colony (typically 1-24) The second file is: ‘patriline identity for workers.txt’ The five columns are: WorkerID                              This is the unique worker identifier for all data. The numbers refer to the colony that the worker belongs to, an E                                                or L that identifies the worker as either an early or late forager and the last pair of numbers that indicate the                                                worker identity within the colony. This is the same ID as in the previous file. Patriline                                The patriline designation within each colony Colony                                   The colony designation for each worker Early                                       Whether the worker is an early forager (=1) or a late forager (=0) Ant                                          The designation of worker identity within a colony (typically 1-24) The third file is: ‘early-late patrilines by colony.txt’ The four columns are: Colony                                     The colony designation for each patriline Patriline                                  The patriline designation within each colony Early                                        Whether the data are for early (=1) or late(=0) patrilines Frequency                               The number of workers with this patriline that are either early or late foragers. If the entry is zero, then there are                                                   no workers with this patriline in that activity class.