DOI: 10.5061/dryad.t76hdr8br
title: Data from:Open and closed economies as possible alternative strategies to resource heterogeneity in ants

description: Ant colonies have either a single nest (monodomy) or multiple nests
 (polydomy). A challenge is to explain their adaptive significane,
 specifying costs and benefits of each colony type. An explanation for ant
 polydomy is adaptation to spatially heterogenous environments. With
 polydomy a colony can exchange complementary nutrition among nests within
 the entire colony occupying a wide territory. We tested this resource
 redistribution hypothesis using two closely related species,i.e. the
 polydomous ant Pheidole megacephala and the monodomous ant Pheidole noda.
 We put each colony in an artificially polydomous setting with two nests
 connected by tubes. We provided liquid food lacking protein to one nest
 and that lacking carbohydrates to the other nest. P. megacephala almost
 totally failed to produce brood when the connecting tubes were clipped,
 whereas it improved reproductive performance when the tubes were open. In
 marked contrast, P. noda, managed to maintain high performance for a long
 period even when only nutritionally biased food was provided, most likely
 by relying on stored provisions that compensated for the missing
 nutrients. Based on these data we propose the hypothesis that ant polydomy
 is an open economic strategy to counter heterogeneity in resource
 distribution 'spatially' by trading between nests and extending
 the resource searching area, whereas monodomy may be a closed economic
 strategy to cope with resource heterogeneity `temporally` by withstanding
 food-depressed periods with stored nutrition and by efficient utilization
 of frugal diets. More empirical data in other ant taxa are necessary to
 test generality of this idea.
description: # Open and closed economies as possible alternative strategies to resource
 heterogeneity in ants We have submitted our raw data (**Fig2A.csv and
 Fig2B.csv**), Resource redistribution experiment: brood production in P.
 megacephala and P. noda (**Fig3A.csv and Fig3B.csv**), Resource
 redistribution experiment: worker survival(**Table1.csv**), Position of
 brood and workers at the end of resource redistribution
 experiment(**Table2.csv**), A long-term brood production in P. noda
 colonies when fed only sugar(**FigS1AB.csv**), Suitability of tryptone as
 a pure protein source for the growth of P. megacephala and P. noda
 (**FigS2.csv**), Effect of protein levels on workers survival in P.
 megacephala. **Descriptions** **Fig2A,Fig2B,Fig3A,Fig3B** Data *
 Treatment: A (All-nutrition-mixture food). Both nests were provisioned
 with all nutrition food. C (One nest was provisioned with protein and
 another nest was provisioned with sugar) D1 (negative control 1 of C. Both
 nests were disconnected throughout the experiments. D2-s and D2-p
 (negative control 2 of C with different colony size. D2-s (sugar lacking
 nest) and D2-p(protein lacking nest) * Colony ID: Ant colony Identity name
 * brood: Total number of brood (eggs,larvae,pupae) * larvapupa: The number
 of (larvae and pupae) * surviving: The number of surviving workers at the
 end of experiment * surviving(prop):The proportion of surviving workers
 **Table1** Data * Treatment: Nest1 and Nest2 ( Two connected nests of A
 and C treatments) * ColonyID: The same ant colonyID was used as mentioned
 above. * megA,megC,nodA,nodC:brood: Total number of brood in treatment A
 and C in P. megacephala and P. noda * megA,megC,nodA,nodC:larvapupa: The
 number of larvae and pupae in treatment A and C *
 megA,megC,nodA,nodC:surviving:The number of surviving workers in treatment
 A and C **Table2** Data * Treatment: All(All-nutrition-mixture
 food),Sugaronly (Suagr-only food) * ColonyID: Ant colony identity name *
 egg,larva,pupa,brood,worker: Total number of brood,egg,larva, pupa,
 surviving workers were counted after 8 weeks. **FigS1AB** Data *
 Treatment:Mealworm (control treatment of crushed dry mealworm),
 Tryptone(protein source), Lactalbumin (protein source) * ColonyID:Ant
 colony identity name *
 mega:brood,mega:larvapupa,noda:brood,noda:larvapupa: Total number of
 brood,larva and pupa were counted in P. megacephala and P. noda
 **FigS2** Data * day: Experimental period 35 days * plevel:p1 contained
 14g pure protein (tryptone). The diets p2,p3,p4,p5 and p6 had five
 different protein levels(14,7,3.5,1.4, and 0.7g of tryptone. To assess
 mortality under each protein level, the number of dead workers in four
 colonies was counted every day. ## Software R version 3.0.2 was used to do
 statistical analyses for all data.