Bernadou, Abel and Busch, Josefine and Heinze, Juergen (2015) Diversity in identity: behavioral flexibility, dominance, and age polyethism in a clonal ant. BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY AND SOCIOBIOLOGY, 69 (8). pp. 1365-1375. ISSN 0340-5443, 1432-0762
Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)Abstract
In many species of social insects, division of non-reproductive labor is to some extent affected by age, in that younger individuals engage in activities in the nest, whereas older individuals forage. While the link between age and task is less robust than originally thought, the transition from nursing to foraging is associated with large changes in gene expression, neuroanatomy, and physiology and therefore seems largely irreversible. Here, we investigate division of labor in the thelytokous ant Platythyrea punctata. Since it forms clonal colonies, it is an ideal model to investigate the behavioral flexibility of individuals and the proximate mechanisms underlying division of labor, while avoiding confounding factors, such as variation in genotype or morphology. We found that nurses and foragers of P. punctata differ in residual life span, fat content, fecundity, and the propensity to engage in dominance interactions. However, age-based division of labor appears to be flexible: foragers can revert to nursing and egg laying, even though they appear less fecund than original nurse workers. Interestingly, the transition from foraging to nursing seemed to slow down aging and senescence.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | DIVISION-OF-LABOR; JAPANESE QUEENLESS ANT; PLATYTHYREA-PUNCTATA; APIS-MELLIFERA; INSECT COLONIES; PONERINE ANT; HONEY-BEES; POGONOMYRMEX-CALIFORNICUS; REPRODUCTIVE DIVISION; PRISTOMYRMEX-PUNGENS; Ponerinae; Division of labor; Behavioral reversion; Dominance hierarchy; Senescence |
| Subjects: | 500 Science > 590 Zoological sciences |
| Divisions: | Biology, Preclinical Medicine > Institut für Zoologie > Zoologie/Evolutionsbiologie (Prof. Dr. Jürgen Heinze) |
| Depositing User: | Dr. Gernot Deinzer |
| Date Deposited: | 25 Jun 2019 13:56 |
| Last Modified: | 25 Jun 2019 13:56 |
| URI: | https://pred.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/5126 |
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