Annual Production and Respiration in Ant Populations

By using values of respiratory metabolism from studies on energy flow through ant populations and supplementary data it is shown that the metabolism of single worker ants at 20'C is similar to those reported for other invertebrates. The current opinion up to now that ant populations, having exceptionally high maintenance costs, act as an energy drainage in ecosystems is questioned. On the contrary, it is made probable that values of annual production and respiration of ant populations fit the McNeill and Lawton equation relating these variables for poikilothermic animal populations. Finally, a strategy for estimating annual production by means of total population metabolism is proposed.