Scouting Behavior of the Japanese Slave-Making Ant, Polyergus samurai (Hymenoptera : Formicidae)

Scouting behavior of the Japanese slave-making ant, Polyergus samurai, was observed under natural conditions by individual marking. The scouting was carried out on sunny days or days with at least occasional sun. When scouts located target Formica colonies, they ran back to their home nests along straight courses. While returning, they sometimes stopped and strongly bend their gaster to rub the apical parts with the tips of their legs. Raiding swarms marched toward the target Formica colonies along the same courses that the returning scouts had took. In a raiding swarm, the scout that had located the target colony was not always at the head but in the first 50 workers.