M<scp>ODELS OF</scp>D<scp>IVISION OF</scp>L<scp>ABOR IN</scp>S<scp>OCIAL</scp>I<scp>NSECTS</scp>

Beshers, Samuel N.; Fewell, Jennifer H.

doi:10.1146/annurev.ento.46.1.413

Cited by 789 publications

(604 citation statements)

References 120 publications

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“…Our results support the suggestion that drone and worker maturation have common underlying causes (Giray & Robinson 1996). This is not a trivial finding, because the onset of foraging activity in workers is a life history parameter that is highly regulated at the individual and colony level (Huang & Robinson 1996;Pankiw et al 1998;Robinson & Huang 1998;Beshers & Fewell 2001;Robinson 2002;Amdam & Omholt 2003). In contrast, no social regulation of drone flight initiation has been demonstrated.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

“…Division of labour is a hallmark of social evolution (Beshers & Fewell 2001), and among honeybee workers, it is mainly determined by age and genetic effects (Winston 1987). To promote individual specialization, the response thresholds to different task stimuli should vary independently among individuals (Beshers & Fewell 2001). This seems not to be the case: honeybees show well-established behavioural differences among races that extend to multiple behavioural phenotypes, as well as to morphology and life history (Winston 1987).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Male behavioural maturation rate responds to selection on pollen hoarding in honeybees

2006

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Division of labour in social insect colonies relies on behavioural functional differentiation (specialization) of individuals with similar genomes. However, individual behavioural traits do not evolve independently of each other (behavioural syndromes). A prime example is the suite of behavioural differences in honeybee workers that has evolved in response to bidirectional selection on pollen hoarding of honeybee colonies (pollen-hoarding syndrome). More generally, these differences reflect functional differentiation between nectar and pollen foragers. We demonstrate here that this pollen-hoarding syndrome extends to drones. Similar to what has been shown in workers, drones from the high-pollen-hoarding strain had a higher locomotion activity after emergence, and they initiated flight earlier than did males derived from the low-pollen-hoarding strain, with hybrids intermediate. However, these two behavioural traits were unlinked at the individual level. We also found that social environment (the colony) affects the age at which drones initiate flight. The indirect selection responses of male behaviour suggest that male and worker evolution are not independent and may constrain each other's evolution. Furthermore, we identified three distinct peaks in the probability of flight initiation over the course of the experiment and a decreased phenotypic variability in the 'hybrid' males, contrary to quantitative genetic expectations.Social insects owe much of their evolutionary success to the coordinated action of behaviourally specialized members of their colonies (Oster & Wilson 1978; Winston 1987;Hölldobler & Wilson 1990). Division of labour is a hallmark of social evolution (Beshers & Fewell 2001), and among honeybee workers, it is mainly determined by age and genetic effects (Winston 1987). To promote individual specialization, the response thresholds to different task stimuli should vary independently among individuals (Beshers & Fewell 2001). This seems not to be the case: honeybees show well-established behavioural differences among races that extend to multiple behavioural phenotypes, as well as to morphology and life history (Winston 1987). Similar multiple behavioural phenotypes in honeybees are also correlated at the individual level (Page & Erber 2002;Pankiw 2003;Scheiner et al. 2004), indicating their evolution as behavioural syndromes (array of correlated behavioural characteristics: Sih et al. 2004). Linked sets of behavioural traits may have arisen through adaptation in certain contexts (Amdam et al. 2004), but the correlation among behavioural traits may constrain the division of labour in social insects, and behavioural optimization in general (Price & Langen 1992;Sih et al. 2004 One of the best-studied examples of behavioural syndromes in insects is the behavioural differentiation among workers of two strains of honeybees that have been bidirectionally selected over multiple generations for different amounts of pollen stored in their nests . Many different aspects of foraging behaviour Wadd...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

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confidence: 99%

Male behavioural maturation rate responds to selection on pollen hoarding in honeybees

2006

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“…Most works model division of labor and specialization in social insects (see [1] and [2] for an overview). These works focus almost exclusively on specialization as a means of increasing task performance by reducing external costs (e.g., travel times [15]).…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Division of labor is a concept that is common in the organization of large groups of individuals such as humans or social insects [1,5]. In division of labor, "(a) each worker specializes on a subset of the complete repertoire of tasks performed by the colony, and (b) this subset varies across individual workers in the colony" [1].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In division of labor, "(a) each worker specializes on a subset of the complete repertoire of tasks performed by the colony, and (b) this subset varies across individual workers in the colony" [1]. A common way to obtain division of labor is to let individuals adapt their behavior to focus on a subset of the tasks available-this is called behavioral specialization [13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Costs and benefits of behavioral specialization

Brutschy

Tran

Baiboun

et al. 2012

Robotics and Autonomous Systems

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Abstract. In this work, we study behavioral specialization in a swarm of autonomous robots. In the studied swarm, a robot working repeatedly on the same type of task improves in task performance due to learning. Robots may exploit this positive effect of learning by selecting with higher probability the tasks on which they have improved their performance. However, even though the exploitation of such performanceimproving effects is clearly a benefit, specialization also entails certain costs. Using a task allocation strategy that allows the robots to behaviorally specialize, we study the trade-off between costs and benefits in simulation experiments. Additionally, we give a perspective on the impact of this trade-off in systems that use specialization.

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Eusociality and Cooperation

Keller

Chapuisat

2010

Encyclopedia of Life Sciences

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The evolution of eusociality, here defined as the emergence of societies with reproductive division of labour and cooperative brood care, was first seen as a challenge to Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. Why should individuals permanently forgo direct reproduction to help other individuals to reproduce? Kin selection, the indirect transmission of genes through relatives, is the key process explaining the evolution of permanently nonreproductive helpers. However, in some taxa helpers delay reproduction until a breeding opportunity becomes available. Overall, eusociality evolved when ecological conditions promote stable associations of related individuals that benefit from jointly exploiting and defending common resources. High levels of cooperation and robust mechanisms of division of labour are found in many animal societies. However, conflicts among individuals are still frequent when group members that are not genetically identical compete over reproduction or resource allocation. Evolution of Reproductive Altruism and Eusociality Social life provides such advantages that it has led to a tremendous ecological success of social animals, particularly social insects. Social insects are found in almost every

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MODELS OFDIVISION OFLABOR INSOCIALINSECTS

Cited by 789 publications

References 120 publications

Male behavioural maturation rate responds to selection on pollen hoarding in honeybees

Male behavioural maturation rate responds to selection on pollen hoarding in honeybees

Costs and benefits of behavioral specialization

Eusociality and Cooperation

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