The evolutionary ecology of harvester ants

Despite the ecological importance of ants and their central position in studies of social evolution, little is known of evolutionary pressures that act on natural populations. This talk will look at life history phenomena such as reproductive maturation, growth and senescence in light of their measured effects on colony fitness in the western harvester ant. The goal is to measure the effect of phenotypic traits on 'lifetime' colony fitness. I will discuss results from our long-term study that allow us to suggest what is important and what is relatively less important for the evolutionary ecology of this species.