No abstract

Social hierarchies are ubiquitous in social groups such as human societies and social insect colonies; however, the factors that maintain these hierarchies are less clear. Motivated by the shared reproductive hierarchy of the ant species Harpegnathos saltator, we have developed simple compartmental nonlinear differential equations to explore how key life-history and metabolic rate parameters may impact and determine its colony size and the length of its shared hierarchy. Our modeling approach incorporates nonlinear social interactions and metabolic theory. The results from the proposed model, which were linked with limited data, show that: (1) the proportion of reproductive individuals decreases over colony growth; (2) an increase in mortality rates can diminish colony size but may also increase the proportion of reproductive individuals; and (3) the metabolic rates have a major impact in the colony size and structure of a shared hierarchy.

The members of any family are not always living in the same region. Either for work, study or other reasons they are separated by distance. Although they live separately, they are related by blood and still interact with another family member to some extent. This phenomenon not only happens with humans. In the same way, we can see this pattern with any living organism in nature. For instance, we can see individuals of a forest bird species distributed among several separate forest patches, within which more or fewer stable populations are established, but that maintain migratory movements from one patch to another. At present, nature is increasingly fragmenting due to natural causes as well as a human activity. Therefore, since nature is patchy and becoming more so, biologists have become more interested in metapopulations1. Specifically, they have a particular interest in understanding how metapopulations adapt. Adaptation in Metapopulations addresses this topic, providing a varied, profoundly considered discussion of the current condition of the understanding of it.