Division of labour and ‘foraging for work’: simulating reality versus the reality of simulations

Robson, Simon K. A.; Beshers, Samuel N.

doi:10.1006/anbe.1996.0290

Cited by 20 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Schmikl and Crailsheim [25] used Mathematica to formulate a very complicated model that extends the model of DeGrandi-Hoffman et al [23], in part, by including the effect of division of labour in the hive, modeled using ideas from the Foraging-for-Work theory [26]. This theory of task allocation is less relevant in bees than in ants because bees have a strong age-based component in task allocation [27], [28] and social inhibition is a very important driver of task specialization [27], [29], [30], [31]. In any case, these simulation models are complicated to understand and to construct and most are tailored to particular situations, as reflected in either their intrinsic structure or their parameterization or both.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling Food and Population Dynamics in Honey Bee Colonies

2013

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Honey bees (Apis mellifera) are increasingly in demand as pollinators for various key agricultural food crops, but globally honey bee populations are in decline, and honey bee colony failure rates have increased. This scenario highlights a need to understand the conditions in which colonies flourish and in which colonies fail. To aid this investigation we present a compartment model of bee population dynamics to explore how food availability and bee death rates interact to determine colony growth and development. Our model uses simple differential equations to represent the transitions of eggs laid by the queen to brood, then hive bees and finally forager bees, and the process of social inhibition that regulates the rate at which hive bees begin to forage. We assume that food availability can influence both the number of brood successfully reared to adulthood and the rate at which bees transition from hive duties to foraging. The model predicts complex interactions between food availability and forager death rates in shaping colony fate. Low death rates and high food availability results in stable bee populations at equilibrium (with population size strongly determined by forager death rate) but consistently increasing food reserves. At higher death rates food stores in a colony settle at a finite equilibrium reflecting the balance of food collection and food use. When forager death rates exceed a critical threshold the colony fails but residual food remains. Our model presents a simple mathematical framework for exploring the interactions of food and forager mortality on colony fate, and provides the mathematical basis for more involved simulation models of hive performance.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling Food and Population Dynamics in Honey Bee Colonies

2013

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“…Given a recent set of commentaries (Traniello and Rosengaus, 1997;Robson and Beshers, 1997) 'against' modeling in general, modeling division of labor in particular, and even more specifically the FFW model [see also the reply by Franks et al (1997)], we feel that it is useful to justify our own modeling approach, all the more as it is related to FFW. First, as clearly explained by Franks et al (1997), a modeling approach implies that only a (usually small) fraction of reality be studied and formalized; furthermore, any scientific enterprise-stamp collecting not being considered scientific hereis aimed at finding at least some degree of regularity in the world, and scientific explanation is explanation (by virtue of necessarily simplifying models) of such regularity.…”

Section: Modelling Division Of Labor In Social Insectsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Fixed Response Thresholds and the Regulation of Division of Labor in Insect Societies

Bonabeau

Théraulaz

Deneubourg

1998

Bulletin of Mathematical Biology

217

128

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We introduce a simple mathematical model of regulation of division of labor in insect societies based on fixed-response thresholds. Individuals with different thresholds respond differently to task-associated stimuli. Low-threshold individuals become involved at a lower level of stimulus than high-threshold individuals. We show that this simple model can account for experimental observations of Wilson (1984), extend the model to more complicated situations, explore its properties, and study under what conditions it can account for temporal polyethism.

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“…Ant species may differ substantially in the extent of the influence of age on behavior and its underlying physiological processes (Sendova-Franks and Franks 1993, 1995; Seid and Traniello 2006; Muscedere et al 2009, 2011; Robinson et al 2012, e.g.). The role of age in task performance has sparked controversy (Tofts and Franks 1992; Robson and Beshers 1997; Traniello and Rosengaus 1997); in some ants the effects of age on behavior may be weak (Sendova-Franks and Franks 1993, 1995). Workers that undergo considerable behavioral and physiological maturation following eclosion ( Pheidole dentata : Seid and Traniello 2006; Muscedere et al 2009, 2011) could continue to show plasticity throughout their lifespan, ultimately affecting social organization.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Worker senescence and the sociobiology of aging in ants

Giraldo

Traniello

2014

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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Senescence, the decline in physiological and behavioral function with increasing age, has been the focus of significant theoretical and empirical research in a broad array of animal taxa. Preeminent among invertebrate social models of aging are ants, a diverse and ecologically dominant clade of eusocial insects characterized by reproductive and sterile phenotypes. In this review, we critically examine selection for worker lifespan in ants and discuss the relationship between functional senescence, longevity, task performance, and colony fitness. We did not find strong or consistent support for the hypothesis that demographic senescence in ants is programmed, or its corollary prediction that workers that do not experience extrinsic mortality die at an age approximating their lifespan in nature. We present seven hypotheses concerning how selection could favor extended worker lifespan through its positive relationship to colony size and predict that large colony size, under some conditions, should confer multiple and significant fitness advantages. Fitness benefits derived from long worker lifespan could be mediated by increased resource acquisition, efficient division of labor, accuracy of collective decision-making, enhanced allomaternal care and colony defense, lower infection risk, and decreased energetic costs of workforce maintenance. We suggest future avenues of research to examine the evolution of worker lifespan and its relationship to colony fitness, and conclude that an innovative fusion of sociobiology, senescence theory, and mechanistic studies of aging can improve our understanding of the adaptive nature of worker lifespan in ants.

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Division of labour and ‘foraging for work’: simulating reality versus the reality of simulations

Cited by 20 publications

References 18 publications

Modelling Food and Population Dynamics in Honey Bee Colonies

Modelling Food and Population Dynamics in Honey Bee Colonies

Fixed Response Thresholds and the Regulation of Division of Labor in Insect Societies

Worker senescence and the sociobiology of aging in ants

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