Colony recognition of larvae by young workers of Cataglyphis Cursor (Hymenoptera, Formicidae ).

In an ant, C. cursor , colony recognition of larvae exists in callow workers 10 days or older, but the discrimination capacities of very young workers has not been investigated. We show that workers less than 24 h old are already able to discriminate homocolonial from alien larvae. This is an additional argument in favour of the existence of a learning period for colony recognition of larvae during the preimaginal life.