ABSTRACT
Food is the limiting factor for the development of social insect colonies (Hubbell and Johnson 1977; Hölldobler and Wilson 1990; Raveret Richter 2000; Eltz et al. 2002; Mattila and Seeley 2007). An efcient food exploitation system, therefore, is the key to the tness and ecological success of a social insect colony. All social insects are central place foragers and need carbohydrates and proteins for the activity of their adults and the growth of their young. They acquire these nutritional resources from a variety of food sources. Almost all bees obtain their food from owers (nectar and pollen) (Michener 1974), whereas most wasps obtain at least the protein part of their diet from meat, either by catching live arthropod prey or scavenging dead animals (Ross and Matthews 1991; see also Chapter 3). Most termites forage on wood or dead vegetation, with many species locating their nest within the food resource itself-a trait also true of eusocial aphids, thrips, and beetles (Costa 2006). Among all social insects, the ants utilize the broadest range of food sources, collecting, for example, meat, honeydew, fruit, nectar, or leaves, according to the respective ant species (Hölldobler and Wilson 1990).
