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Cooperative prey retrieval in the monomorphic ant Formica schaufussi is carried out by workers that perform functionally distinct roles which persist only for the duration of a single retrieval event. A forager (scout) that locates prey too large to retrieve individually organizes cooperative prey transport by recruiting nestmates (recruits) to assist in retrieval. The scout and recruit roles appear to be determined by whether a worker activates recruitment or is recruited from the nest. Scouts organize recruitment and play a key role in maintaining the cohesion of the retrieval group. If a scout that has initiated group transport is experimentally removed, the recruited workers composing the retrieval group typically abandon the prey and cooperative foraging is terminated. In this context, recruits are unable to function as scouts and reorganize group transport. Individuals marked as recruits in one prey retrieval, however, can switch and act as scouts in subsequent retrievals. Because the roles of individuals persist within but not between retrieval events, the specialization involved in cooperative prey retrieval cannot easily be explained as a response associated with age-related or genetic predispositions. This transient division-of-labor, in which individual roles may persist only for the duration of a single group action, represents a novel type of short-term individual specialization. 相似文献
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Summary Workers of the ant Formica schaufussi forage as individuals and cooperate in groups to retrieve arthropod prey. In 2 sample years, group-transported prey were on average 6.8 and 4.7 times heavier than individually retrieved items, and the average loading ratios of groups were greater than the loading ratios of single foragers. Retrieval group size was adjusted to prey size, and prey transport velocity for individuals and groups tended to decrease with increasing prey weight. The efficiency of individual and group retrieval, estimated from calculations of the prey delivery rate to the nest (PDR) achieved by each foraging mode, varied as a function of prey size. Individual retrieval maximized PDR at a prey weight of 19.5 mg, and group transport maximized PDR at 190 mg. Although the PDR maxima of an individual in a group and a solitary forager were approximately equal, depending on prey size, group transport may maximize foraging efficiency. Group transport also decreased interference competition from sympatric ant species. Group-transported prey having a greater likelihood of successful retrieval were within the size range of prey that maximized foraging efficiency. Transport group size appeared to be more important in prey defense than in increasing prey transport velocity, suggesting an important role of group size in competitive ability.Offprint requests to: J.F.A. Traniello 相似文献
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Polymorphism frequently correlates with specialized labor in social insects, but extreme morphologies may compromise behavioral
flexibility and thus limit caste evolution. The ant genus Pheidole has dimorphic worker subcastes in which major workers appear limited due to their morphology to performing defensive or trophic
functions, thus providing an ideal model to investigate specialization and plasticity. We examined worker morphology, brood-care
flexibility, and subcaste ratio in 17 species of tropical twig-nesting Pheidole by quantifying nursing by major workers in natural colonies and in subcolonies lacking minors, in which we also measured
brood survival and growth. Across species, majors performed significantly less brood care than minors in intact colonies,
but increased rates of brood care 20-fold in subcolonies lacking minors. Brood nursed by majors had lower survival than brood
tended by minors, although rates of brood growth did not vary between subcastes. Significant interspecific variation in rates
of brood care by major workers did not lead to significant differences in brood growth or survival. Additionally, we did not
find a significant association between the degree of major worker morphometric specialization and rates of nursing, growth,
or survival of brood among species. Therefore, major workers showed reduced efficacy of brood care, but the degree of morphological
specialization among species did not directly compromise task plasticity. The compact nests and all-or-nothing consequences
of predation or disturbance on colony fitness may have influenced the evolution of major worker brood-care competency in twig-nesting
Pheidole.
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Dedicated to Professor Edward O. Wilson on the occasion of his 80th birthday. 相似文献
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Nina H. Fefferman James F. A. Traniello Rebeca B. Rosengaus Daniel V. CalleriII 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2007,61(4):565-577
Understanding the origin of disease resistance in social insects is difficult due to the lack of well-established phylogenies
of presocial and eusocial species and the absence of extant basal and intermediate forms. Moreover, comprehensive accounts
of infection-control traits in social insect lineages are not available. Therefore, to explore the evolution of pathogen control
in social insects we used cellular automata models to analyze the efficacy of immunity and nest hygiene, which we assumed
were basal traits, and allogrooming, which likely followed the transition to eusociality, and their interactions with colony
demography and patterns of worker spatial distribution. Models showed that nest hygiene provided an immediate survival benefit
and that immunity lowered overall disease susceptibility under both constant and periodic exposure scenarios. Allogrooming
increased survivorship in chronically challenged colonies but also increased pathogen transmission rates under conditions
of periodic exposure. Colonies having demographies biased towards young or old individuals had slightly higher mortality than
those with heterogeneous demographies. The distribution of older individuals relative to the nest center had no significant
effect on susceptibility and provided only a minor survival advantage. Models indicated that nest hygiene and immunity function
on different temporal scales and can interact with demography to lower disease risks. Our results suggest how infection control
systems in social insects could have been built upon the inducible immune defenses and nest hygienic behaviors of solitary
and presocial ancestors and served as important preadaptations to manage disease exposure and transmission in colonies of
eusocial species. 相似文献