EN
By protecting their territory against all territorial ants, Formica rufa L. indirectly protected F. fusca L., nesting within their territory, against F. sanguinea Latr. raids. The permanent costs to F. fusca caused by highly aggressive F. rufa within their territories were outweighed by the benefits obtained by F. rufa’s protection against periodic raids of F. sanguinea. We interprete our findings in the light of the hierarchy competitive framework as follows.