DOI: 10.5061/dryad.0gb5mkm69
title: Foraging behavior affects nest architecture in a cross-species comparison of ant nests

description: Animals construct and inhabit nests that can exhibit dramatic intra- and
 inter-specific variation due to differences in behavior, the biotic and
 abiotic environment, and evolutionary history. In ants, variation in nest
 architecture not only reflects differences in ecology and collective
 behavior; it influences the behaviors of the colonies that inhabit them.
 Each component of the nest (such as depth, and the number, size, and
 connectivity of chambers) reflects selective pressures for different
 functions, or structural constraints that are imposed by the environment
 or evolutionary history. To determine potential drivers of nest structure
 variation in subterranean nests, we performed a meta-analysis of published
 ant nests to compare different structural elements within and across
 species. We complemented this survey with 42 nest casts of two closely
 related species. We quantified nest features that can potentially impact
 ant foraging behavior and examined whether phylogeny or foraging strategy
 are better explanatory variables for the variation we observed. We found
 that foraging strategy better explained nest features than evolutionary
 history. Our work reveals the importance of ecology in shaping nest
 structure and provides an important foundation for future investigations
 into the selective pressures that have shaped ant nest architecture.
description: This repository contains the code and data
 files needed to reproduce the analysis from "Foraging behavior
 affects nest architecture in a cross-species comparison of ant nests"
 by Sean O'Fallon, Kim Drager, Art Zhao, Andy Suarez, and Noa
 Pinter-Wollman. Once the code and
 data are saved to your computer, you will need to change the file paths in
 the script to match your local directory. The lines that need editing
 should be obvious - they are the lines that call read.csv on a filepath
 through "C:/Users/seano/Desktop/Projects/...". Once those
 read.csv function calls are changed to reflect the location of the data
 files on your computer, the R script in this repo should run without
 further modification. You'll see that the script begins with loading
 in data files and cleaning data objects, then proceeds to the analyses
 performed in the study, and concludes with the outputs found in the main
 text and supplementary material. The data files: <em>Chamber_Widths_per_Chamber</em> –
 contains the widths (in cm) of all measured chambers in nests for which a
 network was constructed. Col A has nest ID, B has node type, C has Node
 ID, D has maximum width (cm). 
 <em>e-chamber-widths_no-net</em> – for some nests, we could
 not construct a network, but could extract an entrance chamber width
 measurement. The widths of the entrance chambers for those nests are
 contained here. Col A contains nest ID, B contains species, C is left
 blank, and D contains maximum width (cm). <em>foraging-by-species_upload</em> –
 contains the foraging strategy designation for all species included in
 this study. Col A contains species, B contains the designation given by
 Lanan 2014, C contains the designation used in this study, D contains the
 taxonomic level for which the strategy is attributed based on evidence
 from the literature (either genus or species), E contains the primary
 literature source on which the designation is based, F contains the type
 of evidence the source provides, G contains links to the source, H and I
 contain information on corroborating reports, J contains notes (can be
 safely ignored), and K contains search terms used to find
 sources. 
 <em>morpho_upload</em> – contains the morphometric
 measurements used to scale nest features for each species used in this
 study. A contains the species, B contains the specimen ID, C contains a
 link to the image used in head measurements, D contains the width of the
 specimen's head at its eyes (cm), E contains the maximum width of the
 specimen's head (if different than at eyes) (cm), F contains the
 width of the specimen's mandibles, G contains a link to the image
 used to measure the specimen's head length and Weber's length, H
 contains the length of the specimen's head, I contains the
 specimen's Weber's length. <em>nest-summaries_upload</em> – for
 each nest included in this study, indicates which features could be
 measured. Also includes nest depths in meters. Col A contains nest ID, B
 contains species, C and D contain information on the files from which the
 nest measurements were taken, E through H indicate whether the nest was
 networked, whether entrance chamber width was measured, how many entrances
 the nest has (not used in this study), and whether tunnel length was
 measured (not used in this study), respectively. Col I contains nest depth
 (m). 
 <em>num-cham_no-net</em> – for some nests used in this study,
 the number of chambers could be extracted despite the nest not being
 constructed as a network. The number of chambers in those nests are
 contained here. Col A contains nest ID, B contains species, and C contains
 the number of chambers that nest has.