Monogyne fire ants forage only within the boundaries of their own territories, and they do so by blanketing this territory with foragers. This foraging population is itself divided into two rather distinct groups, scouts and recruits. Scouts were captured in vacuum samples or by aspirating non-trailing workers, whereas recruits were captured on baits. Mark-release-recapture studies showed that as fire ant workers age, they first become recruits and then scouts. Laboratory and field studies showed that part of the recruit population waits to be recruited in the underground foraging tunnels and another part waits in the nest. Less than half the forager population is scouts.