Does Stressor Exposure Influence Exploratory Activity and Colony Establishment in Ant Queens?

Stress affects all organisms, and physiological and behavioural responses to stressors vary widely among species depending on the type, timing, and intensity of the stressor. Social organisation can influence responses to stressor exposure. Highly social organisms may be buffered against stress by their colony structure and division of labour. In social insects, division of labour enables reproductives, otherwise known as queens, to benefit from the protection and care provided by non‐reproductive caste members, thereby reducing the impact of exposure to environmental stressors. However, when a young queen must independently find a nest site, she is likely exposed to multiple intense environmental stressors and her physiological and behavioural responses may affect her colony founding success. We investigated the effects of repeated stressor exposure on the exploratory behaviour and productivity in newly mated founding queens of the ant Lasius niger . We hypothesised that stressed queens would increase their exploratory activity, as well as decrease egg‐laying and brood production, leading to smaller colony size. Furthermore, we investigated a possible transmission of maternal stress, such that workers would mirror the queen's exploratory activity. Stressor exposure did not affect queen productivity, including egg, cocoon, and worker production. Queen exploratory activity showed a weak but non‐significant increase after stressor exposure. Worker exploratory activity was not affected by maternal stressor exposure. Together, these results may suggest that founding queens of L. niger are resilient to repeated stressor exposure during early colony establishment. This resilience is likely adaptive by enabling queens to cope with stressful conditions during the critical colony founding phase.