Fitness costs of worker specialization for ant societies

Jongepier, Evelien; Foitzik, Susanne

doi:10.1098/rspb.2015.2572

Cited by 28 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…longispinosus (Jongepier & Foitzik, 2016). Moreover, we recently showed that a decrease in worker size variation did not affect the efficiency of various colony level tasks in T. nylanderi (Colin T., Doums C., Péronnet R., Molet M., unpublished data).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Effect of temperature and social environment on worker size in the ant Temnothorax nylanderi

Molet

Péronnet

Couette

et al. 2017

Journal of Thermal Biology

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Warm temperatures decrease insect developmental time and body size. Social life could buffer external environmental variations, especially in large social groups, either through behavioral regulation and compensation or through specific nest architecture. Mean worker size and distribution of worker sizes within colonies are important parameters affecting colony productivity as worker size is linked to division of labor in insect societies. In this paper, we investigate the effect of stressful warm temperatures and the role of social environment (colony size and size of nestmate workers) on the mean size and size variation of laboratory-born workers in the small European ant Temnothorax nylanderi. To do so, we reared field-collected colonies under medium or warm temperature treatments after having marked the field-born workers and removed the brood except for 30 first instar larvae. Warm temperature resulted in the production of fewer workers and a higher adult mortality, confirming that this regime was stressful for the ants. T. nylanderi ants followed the temperature size rule observed in insects, with a decreased developmental time and mean size under warm condition. Social environment appeared to play an important role as we observed that (i) larger colonies buffered the effect of temperature better than smaller ones (ii) colonies with larger workers produced larger workers whatever the rearing temperature and (iii) the coefficient of variation of worker size was similar in the field and under medium laboratory temperature. This suggests that worker size variation is not primarily due to seasonal environmental fluctuations in the field. Finally, we observed a higher coefficient of variation of worker size under warm temperature. We propose that this results from a disruption of social regulation, i.e. the control of nestmate workers over developing larvae and adult worker size, under stressful conditions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Effect of temperature and social environment on worker size in the ant Temnothorax nylanderi

Molet

Péronnet

Couette

et al. 2017

Journal of Thermal Biology

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“…This highlights an interesting contradiction; it suggests that although some workers are highly active and conform to the definition of 'elites', they may not actually be that effective at their task, despite investing more effort than their nest mates. Indeed, a recent study, also in the Temnothorax genus, found that reliance on specialists in the face of dynamic environments may be disadvantageous (Jongepier and Foitzik, 2016), highlighting another case in which the contribution of 'elites' is far from decisive.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A social mechanism facilitates ant colony emigrations over different distances

O’Shea-Wheller

Wilson-Aggarwal

Edgley

et al. 2016

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Behavioural responses enable animals to react rapidly to fluctuating environments. In eusocial organisms, such changes are often enacted at the group level, but may be organised in a decentralised fashion by the actions of individuals. However, the contributions of different group members are rarely homogeneous, and there is evidence to suggest that certain 'keystone' individuals are important in shaping collective responses. Accordingly, investigations of the dynamics and structuring of behavioural changes at both the group and individual level are crucial for evaluating the relative influence of different individuals. Here, we examined the composition of tandem running behaviour during colony emigrations in the ant species Temnothorax albipennis. Tandem running is modulated in response to emigration distance, with more runs being conducted when a more distant nest site must be reached. We show that certain individuals are highly active in the tandem running process, attempting significantly more work in the task. Contrary to expectations, however, such individuals are in fact no more successful at conducting tandem runs than their less active nest mates. Instead, it seems that when more tandem runs are required, colonies rely on greater recruitment of workers into the process. The implications of our study are that in some cases, even when apparently 'key' individuals exist within a group, their relative contribution to task performance may be far from decisive.

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“…For instance, some T. longispinosus workers fight against their slavemaker attackers, while others start to evacuate the nest and flee with the brood [120]. However, division of labour can also be maladaptive when facing slavemakers [121]: manipulation of the level of division of labour in T. longispinosus hosts showed that colonies composed of generalist workers saved more brood and inflicted more casualties among their slavemaker attackers than colonies composed of specialist workers. Moreover, comparing the natural level of division of labour in host colonies across populations confirmed that hosts were less specialized when threatened by slavemakers.…”

Section: (B) Larger Fightersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insect societies fight back: the evolution of defensive traits against social parasites

Grüter

Jongepier²,

Foitzik

2018

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Insect societies face many social parasites that exploit their altruistic behaviours or their resources. Due to the fitness costs these social parasites incur, hosts have evolved various behavioural, chemical, architectural and morphological defence traits. Similar to bacteria infecting multicellular hosts, social parasites have to successfully go through several steps to exploit their hosts. Here, we review how social insects try to interrupt this sequence of events. They can avoid parasite contact by choosing to nest in parasite-free locales or evade attacks by adapting their colony structure. Once social parasites attack, hosts attempt to detect them, which can be facilitated by adjustments in colony odour. If social parasites enter the nest, hosts can either aggressively defend their colony or take their young and flee. Nest structures are often shaped to prevent social parasite invasion or to safeguard host resources. Finally, if social parasites successfully establish themselves in host nests, hosts can rebel by killing the parasite brood or by reproducing in the parasites' presence. Hosts of social parasites can therefore develop multiple traits, leading to the evolution of complex defence portfolios of co-dependent traits. Social parasites can respond to these multi-level defences with counter-adaptations, potentially leading to geographical mosaics of coevolution.This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue 'Evolution of pathogen and parasite avoidance behaviours'.

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Fitness costs of worker specialization for ant societies

Cited by 28 publications

References 35 publications

Effect of temperature and social environment on worker size in the ant Temnothorax nylanderi

Effect of temperature and social environment on worker size in the ant Temnothorax nylanderi

A social mechanism facilitates ant colony emigrations over different distances

Insect societies fight back: the evolution of defensive traits against social parasites

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