Publication: Entry by brute force: An unusual behaviour displayed by Scaurus uncinus (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae), to access nests of Messor barbarus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Spain
Authors
Delgado, Juan A. ; Palma, Ricardo L.
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Publisher
European Journal of Entomology
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DOI
https://doi.org/10.14411/eje.2024.034
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info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Description
© 2024. The authors. This document is made available under the CC-BY 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by /4.0/
This document is the published version of a published work that appeared in final form in
European Journal of Entomology (EJE).
To access the final work, see DOI: https://doi.org/10.14411/eje.2024.034
Abstract
We describe a new and unusual myrmecophilous behaviour displayed by the darkling beetle, Scaurus uncinus (Forster,
1771) (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae), accessing nests of the harvester ant, Messor barbarus (Linnaeus, 1767) (Hymenoptera:
Formicidae), in southeast Spain. The beetles enter the interior of the ant nests using a relatively primitive strategy based only on
brute force, which we name “brute force entries”. To understand the signifi cance of this behaviour, we have studied the interactions
of these two species in the fi eld and in the laboratory during six years. Our observations confi rm that specimens of S. uncinus
expend a considerable eff ort to enter the ant nests, despite the ants fi ercely attacking them, to the extent that the beetles lose
legs and antennae through the process. We describe and discuss this behaviour, and identify hypotheses about its development
and signifi cance.
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Citation
Eur. J. Entomol. 121: 324–340
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