page_title: Pharaoh ant
section_title: Colony proliferation
hierarchical_section_title: Pharaoh ant / Colony proliferation
caption_attribution_description: English: Pharaon ant with single crystal of sugarPolski: Mrówka faraona z kryształkiem (nie kostką) cukru
context_page_description: The pharaoh ant is a small yellow or light brown, almost transparent ant notorious for being a major indoor nuisance pest, especially in hospitals. The pharaoh ant, whose origins are unknown, has now been introduced to virtually every area of the world, including Europe, the Americas, Australasia and Southeast Asia. It is a major pest in the United States, Australia, and Europe.
  This species is polygynous, meaning each colony contains many queens, leading to unique caste interactions and colony dynamics. This also allows the colony to fragment into bud colonies quickly.
  Pharaoh ants are a tropical species, but they thrive in buildings almost anywhere, even in temperate regions provided central heating is present.
context_section_description: Each colony produces sexually reproductive individuals roughly twice a year. However, colonies raised in a laboratory can be manipulated to produce sexuals at any time of year. Colonies proliferate by "budding" (also called "satelliting" or "fractionating"), where a subset of the colony including queens, workers and brood (eggs, larvae and pupae) leave the main colony for an alternative nest site.
  Pharaoh ant colonies appear to prefer familiar nests to novel nests while budding. This suggests the ability for colonies to remember certain qualities of their living space. However, if the novel (unfamiliar) nest is of superior quality, the colony may initially move toward the familiar, but will eventually select the unfamiliar. The colony assumes the familiar nest is preferable, unless they sense better qualities in the novel nest. This decision-making process seeks to minimize the time the colony is without a nest while optimizing the nest the colony finally chooses.
  The number of available budding locations has a large effect on colony fragmentation. A large number of bud nests results in small colony fragments, indicating that the colony has the ability to control size and caste ratios. However, a minimum group size of 469 individuals appears preferred by the species. Amount of fragmentation does not have an effect on food distribution. After budding, nest units do not compete for resources, but rather act cooperatively. This is evolutionarily explained by the high amount of genetic relatedness among these nest units. In addition, major disturbances to the central nest cause the colony to abandon it and flee to a bud nest. Thus, nest units may exchange individuals after budding occurs, further explaining their cooperative behavior.
  In Australia, Monomorium species is particularly successful. This fact is particularly curious because of the presence of a very aggressive ant family, Iridomyrmex, which is quite proficient at interference competition. Iridomyrmex ants are able to quickly seek out food sources and prevent other ant species from reaching them. However, unlike other ant species, Monomorium species, despite their unaggressive nature and small size, are able to thrive even in areas where Iridomyrmex dominates. This success can be attributed to their efficient foraging strategy, and their novel use of venom alkaloids, repellant chemical signals. With these two behaviors, Monomorium species can rapidly monopolize and defend food sources.
caption: Monomorium pharaonis worker with single sugar crystal
exif: {}