The ecology and evolution of color in ants.

Color is important in interspecific communication, and camouflage and can be involved in various physiological processes. In ants, color has been studied mainly from the point of view of lightness and seems to play a role in thermoregulation, photoprotection, and resistance to desiccation. Ant assemblages are darker in cold, and high UV environments. However, lightness represents only one aspect of color. My thesis aims to study the link between the different variables that constitute color and abiotic (temperature, precipitation, and UV) and biotic (habitat and life-history traits of ant species) variables at different spatial scales.