Ethological Mechanisms of Population Density Control in
Coadaptive Complexes of Ants

Zh. I. Reznikova

Institute of Animal Systematics and Ecology, Siberian Division, Russian Academy of Sciences, ul. Frunze 11, Novosibirsk,
630091 Russia

Received August 25, 1997

Abstract—The data on the zonal and biotopical distribution of 70 ant species in the southern Western Siberian
Plain and adjacent regions were analyzed. The results showed that, against the background of a considerable
diversity of the ant fauna, multispecies communities dominated by Formica pratensis retain the constant spe-
cies composition and the quantitative ratio of nests over the area from the northern forest steppe to the southern
boundary of the steppe zone, and the basic features of their species composition remain unchanged up to the
desert zone. In such coadaptive complexes, stable interspecies relationships and characteristic mechanisms of
density regulation develop. Field experiments on artificially changing the size of ant families in communities
with different dominants demonstrated that ants of dominant species actively regulate the level of dynamic den-
sity of subdominant species and exterminate “excess” individuals, estimating their number fairly accurately.
Such a form of interspecies relationships is named interspecies social control.

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