Does the history of option quality affect nest site choice in the acorn ant?

Abstract During decision−making, animals consider not only the current but also the past quality of options. For example, when humans evaluate performance (e.g. sales) of employees, they do not only consider the average performance but also the trend of performance— ascending performance is often viewed as more favorable than descending performance. In our study, we test if non-human animals have a similar bias when they are evaluating options using house-hunting by the acorn ant, Temnothorax curvispinosus, as our model system. Our data show that when nest-site quality is static over time, ant colonies tend to prefer the nest site which was better (i.e. darker) between two nest options. However, when the nest quality changes—one improves and the other worsens—over time, more colonies choose the low-quality, but improving, nest than the high-quality, but worsening, nest. These results suggest that a continuous change of option quality may influence evaluation. We discuss alternative explanations for our results, possible mechanisms and potential ecological benefits for keeping track of the nest-site quality.