AN EARLY RECORD OF TANDEM RUNNING IN 
LEPTOTHORACINE ANTS: GOTTFRID ADLERZ, 1896 
By 
Robin J. Stuart 1 
Department of Zoology, Erindale College, University of Toronto, 
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada L5L 1C6 
Tandem running in ants is a recruitment technique in which one 
ant leads a single follower to a particular target or target area. It has 
been observed in various subfamilies, including the Myrmicinae, 
Ponerinae and Formicinae, and appears to function in recruiting 
nestmates to food discoveries, new nest sites, and into battle. 
Detailed experimental analyses have revealed that tandem running 
in some species is mediated by chemical and tactile cues, and various 
authors have suggested that this recruitment strategy may have been 
the evolutionary precursor of more sophisticated forms of group 
and mass recruitment (see Wilson 1971, Holldobler 1978, Stuart 
and Alloway 1983). 
The term “tandem running” was first used by Wilson (1959) to 
describe the behaviour of Cardiocondyla venustula and C. emeryi 
workers as they recruited nestmates to new food sources. However, 
Wilson (1959, 1971) attributed the first observation of tandem 
running to Hingston (1929), and his description of foraging in 
Camponotus sericeus. Nonetheless, Gottfrid Adlerz appears to 
have observed this behaviour even earlier. Adlerz (1896), writing in 
Swedish, described part of a nest emigration which he observed in 
nature and which involved a mixed colony of the obligatory slave 
maker Harpagoxenus ( =Tomognathus ) sublaevis and its Lepto- 
thorax slaves. In translation, Adlerz described the event as follows 
(see p. 9 of the original text): 
“On one occasion, I observed a Tomognathus-Leptothorax 
community being moved. The move had already started when I 
arrived. The distance moved was only from one side of the stump 
■Present Address: Museum of Comparative Zoology Laboratories, Harvard 
University, Cambridge MA 02138 U.S.A. 
Manuscript received by the editor October 10, 1985. 
103 
