Figure 9.

Pogonomyrmex badius nests grow through the addition of chambers, chamber enlargement and nest deepening. Patterns are shown by decile (increments of 10% of the maximum nest depth) and colony size class. A. More chambers are added in the upper regions of the nest than the lower. B. The mean size of chambers at each depth increases with nest size. C. The combination of increased numbers and mean size of chambers greatly increases the total area in each decile, much more in the upper regions than the lower. D. The increase of total area and maximum depth are proportional, so that the distribution of the percent of the total area in relation to the percent of the maximum depth does not change much as colonies grow. In other words, the size-free shape of the depth-area distribution does not change with colony size.