DOI: 10.5061/dryad.vq83bk40b
title: Formica fusca ants use aphid supplemented foods to alleviate effects during the acute phase of a fungal infection

description: The modulation of nutritional intake by animals to combat pathogens is a
 behaviour which is getting increasing attention. Ant studies using
 isolated compounds or nutrients in artificial diets have revealed a lot of
 the dynamics of the behaviour, but natural sources of medicine are yet to
 be confirmed. Here we explored whether Formica fusca ants exposed to a
 fungal pathogen can use an artificial diet containing foods spiked with
 different concentrations of crushed aphids for a medicinal benefit. We
 show that pathogen exposed colonies adjusted their diet to include more
 aphid supplemented foods during the acute phase of the infection, reducing
 the mortality caused by the disease. However, the benefit was only
 attained when having access to a varied diet, suggesting that while aphids
 contain nutrients or compounds beneficial against infection, it is a part
 of a complex nutritional system where costs and benefits of compounds and
 nutrients need to be moderated.
description: Ant nests (<em>Formica fusca</em>) were collected and
 given unique ID's For experiments original nests
 were split into experimental colony fragments (80 workers/fragment) to be
 used in the different infection treatments (Sham treated Control or
 exposed to a fungal pathogen (<em>Beauveria bassiana</em>)).
 Each experimental colony were then given a diet consisting of three
 different concentrations of supplemented aphids (<em>Megaoura
 viciae</em>): High concentration, low concentration, standard food
 (no aphids)). Foraging arenas were photographed 5 times a day for 9 days,
 from which each foraging ant was counted on the specific foods. Dead and
 alive ants were counted at the end of the 9 day period.
 For the second part, we split original nests into 4 experimental
 colony fragments to be used in different treatment diet combinations
 (Control - Standard food, Control - High concentration food, Exposed -
 Standard food, Exposed High concentration food). Dead ants were counted
 daily for 9 days. All data processing and analysis was
 done using R.
description: # Formica fusca ants use aphid supplemented foods to alleviate effects
 during the acute phase of a fungal infection.
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.vq83bk40b](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.vq83bk40b) ## Description of the data and file structure This file contains the datasets and R code required to reproduce the analysis and results reported in the associated paper. The data is split in four different CSV files: Foraging.csv - contains all the raw data on how the differently treated ants foraged on the different diets. Aggregate.csv - contains the aggregated per day data of the foraging choices of the ants. AphidFoodSurv.csv - contains the survival data of the experiment. AphidFoodInfection.csv - contains the survival data of colonies with single diets. ## Sharing/Access information ## Code/Software The statistical analysis was done using R and can be found in the file: Rissanen\_et\_al\_Code.R The code is commented to help reproduce and explain the results and includes all the needed packages for analysis.