Resume
La récolte des fourmis granivoresMessor galla a été suivie pendant deux ans et demi, dans un milieu sahélo-soudanien où les graines sont produites une fois par an, à l'issue d'une courte saison des pluies, en quantités limitées et variables selon les années.
La récolte des fourmis est très saisonnière. En début de saison sèche, lorsque les nouvelles graines de l'année arrivent à maturité, les fourmilières récoltent intensément et montrent une nette préférence pour certaines graines qu'elles mettent en réserve. Leur activité décroît ensuite et reste faible et irrégulière tout le reste de l'année; elles ramènent alors essentiellement les graines les plus abondantes du milieu environnant leur nid.
Les récoltes annuelles des fourmilières étudiées ont varié, selon la taille des colonies, de 3×105 à 4×106 graines, et de 1 à 19 kg. Dans un quadrat suivi plus précisément, les fourmis ont récolté successivement chaque année en 1978–80, 1979–80 et 1980–81, 4, 5, puis 4 kg/ha de graines, ce qui a représenté 0,4, 1,7, puis 0,5% de la production annuelle de graines par la végétation herbacée. En 1978–79, 3 colonies étudiées ne semblaient pas avoir stocké dans leurs nids plus d'une année de récolte.
La récolte des fourmis a varié dans le temps et dans l'espace en fonction des disponibilités du milieu entourant leur nid. Cette plasticité semble être une réponse adaptée à la variabilité saisonnière et interannuelle des disponibilités alimentaires.
Summary
Seed harvesting by the antMessor galla has been followed over a 2.5-year period in a woodland savanna of the sahelo soudanian zone, where seeds are produced only once a year, in restricted and fluctuating numbers following a short rainy season.
Ants harvesting was highly seasonal. At the onset of the dry season, when new seeds were available, the ants harvested very intensively and exhibited a clear choice of some seeds they stored in their underground granaries. Their activity decreased there-after and remained low and irregular: the ants mainly collected the most abundant seed species found in their nest vicinity.
The yearly total collected ranged between 3.105 and 4.106 seeds for each colony studied (1 to 19 kg in fresh weight). In an area studied more precisely in 1978–79, 1979–80 and 1980–81, the ants harvesting amounted to 4, 5 and 4 kg ha−1 yr−1, which represented respectively 0.4, 1.7 and 0.5% of the annual herbaceous seed production. In 1978–79, 3 studied colonies did not seem to have stored in their nest more than one annual harvest.
Ants harvesting varied in space and in time, according to the available resources around their nests. This adaptibility is considered to be an effective adjustment to a fluctuating food supply.
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Gillon, D., Adam, F. & Hubert, B. Production et consommation de graines en milieu sahélo-soudanien au Sénégal les fourmis,Messor galla . Ins. Soc 31, 51–73 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02223692
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02223692