A Comparative Account of Behaviour Pattern in two Indian Ant Species in Captivity

Activity-rest time budget and aggression were studied in small isolated groups of Camponotus compressus and Diacamma vagans . Those ants were not subjected to the influence of important stimuli like the presence of eggs, larvae, reproductive forms etc. and so the more innate or ‘hard-wired’ activity patterns were evident. Under such circumstances, C. compressus was generally inactive, remaining for days together inside the nest. But on introduction of another small group from the same natural colony, intense activities occurred for a few days. Because of natural polymorphism in C. compressus , even without marking, it could be established that the major worker (soldier) was at sentry duty for 11 h continuously while other workers were less active. And after a few days the ants reverted to the inactive state. D. vagans , on the other hand, was more active and by marking with paint the activity ethograms of two individual ants were determined. Aggression of D. vagans was relatively mild and they never killed conspecifics, members of different colonies were accepted after some time. In the case of C. compressus , killing of conspecifics was noted.