page_title: Parabiosis
section_title: Ecology of social organisms sharing nests
hierarchical_section_title: Parabiosis / Ecology of social organisms sharing nests
caption_attribution_description: Shattuck_53813, Crematogaster modiglianii and Camponotus rufifemur parabiosis, Danum Valley, Sabah-web
context_page_description: Parabiosis, meaning "living beside", is a technical term in various contexts in fields of study related to ecology and physiology. It accordingly has been defined independently in at least three disciplines, namely experimental or medical physiology, the ecology of inactive physiological states, and the ecology of certain classes of social species that share nests.
context_section_description: In the late 19th century the first examples were discovered, of colonies of ants that more or less routinely shared their nests with essentially unrelated species of ants. They did not obviously share anything beyond the upkeep of the nests, even segregating their brood, so these were very surprising observations; most ants are radically intolerant of intruders, usually including even intruders of their own species.
  In the early 20th century Auguste-Henri Forel coined the term "parabiosis" for such associations, and it was adopted by the likes of William Morton Wheeler. The term has remained in currency, for example: "Parabiosis is defined as a special symbiosis, so far known only from a few Neotropical ant species, in which two or more species occupy the same nest site and forage together while keeping brood separate".
  As is to be expected in matters concerning ethology and ecology however, such a class of behaviour patterns cannot be distinguished puristically from every other; there are exceptions and differences of kind and degree. Parabiosis ranges from the sharing of common trails to sharing common nests, and from effectively tolerating another species in general, to toleration only of the single colony of that species that shares the same nest. Furthermore, there is evidence for the partitioning of functions and unequal sharing of work between the two species in the nest. Early reports that parabiotic ant colonies forage and feed together peacefully also have been qualified by observations that revealed ants of one species in such an association aggressively displacing members of the other species from artificially provided food, while also profiting by following their recruitment trails to new food sources.
  In practice parabiosis hardly could be a purely neutral interaction. There can be consequent benefits from shared nest defence and maintenance even when there is neither direct cooperation nor inimical interaction between the two associated populations in a nest.
caption: Crematogaster modiglianii and Camponotus rufifemur ants sharing a nest
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