THE ROLE OF SCOUTING IN SLAVE RAIDS 
BY POLYERGUS BREVICEPS 
(HYMENOPTERA: FORMICIDAE)* 
By Howard Topoff, Diane Bodoni, Peter Sherman, 
and Linda Goodloe 
Department of Psychology, Hunter College of CUNY 
New York, N.Y. 10021 and 
Department of Entomology, The American Museum 
of Natural History, New York, N.Y. 10024 
Introduction 
The formicine ant genus Polyergus contains four species, all of 
which are obligatory social parasites of the related genus Formica. 
Slave ants are obtained during group raids, in which a swarm of 
Polyergus workers penetrates a nest of Formica, disperses the adult 
workers and queen, and carries off the pupal brood (Topoff et al. 
1984, 1985). Although many of these pupae are subsequently 
consumed in the slave-maker’s nest (Kwait and Topoff 1984), a 
significant portion of the Formica brood is reared through pupal 
development. Workers eclosing from this pupal population subse- 
quently perform their typical functions (i.e., foraging, feeding, nest 
defense) as permanent members of a mixed-species nest. 
Ever since the pioneering studies on Polyergus rufescens by 
Huber (1810) and Emery (1908), on P. lucidus by Talbot (1967) and 
Harman (1968), and on P. breviceps by Wheeler (1916), it has been 
well known that slave-making raids are usually initiated by a small 
group of workers called scouts. These individuals locate target 
colonies of Formica, return to their colony of origin, recruit 
nestmates, and lead the raiders back to the Formica nest. Despite 
the generalization that Polyergus slave raids are typically preceded 
by scouting, virtually no field studies exist showing the actual paths 
travelled by scouts, or their overall importance in initiating slave 
raids. In their study of laboratory colonies of P. lucidus, Kwait and 
Topoff (1984) found that most raids were indeed directed towards 
* Manuscript received by the editor May 2, 1987. 
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