Regulation of Division of Labor in Insect Societies

Robinson, Gene E.

doi:10.1146/annurev.en.37.010192.003225

Cited by 1,101 publications

(878 citation statements)

References 125 publications

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“…Genetic variation for caste determination is well known in honeybees (Robinson 1992) and is suggested in several ant species (Stuart and Page 1991;Snyder 1992;Carlin et al 1993;Fraser et al 2000). It has recently been demonstrated in A. echinatior that individuals of different patrilines have different propensities to develop into either small or large workers .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic Diversity and Disease Resistance in Leaf-Cutting Ant Societies

Hughes

Boomsma

2004

Evol

112

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Abstract.•Multiple mating by females (polyandry) remains hard to explain because, while it has substantial costs, clear benefits have remained elusive. The problem is acute in the social insects because polyandry is probably particularly costly for females and most material benefits of the behavior are unlikely to apply. It has been suggested that a fitness benefit may arise from the more genetically diverse worker force that a polyandrous queen will produce. One leading hypothesis is that the increased genetic diversity of workers will improve a colony's resistance to disease. We investigated this hypothesis using a polyandrous leaf-cutting ant and a virulent fungal parasite as our model system. At high doses of the parasite most patrilines within colonies were similarly susceptible, but a few showed greater resistance. At a low dose of the parasite there was more variation between patrilines in their resistance to the parasite. Such genetic variation is a key prerequisite for polyandry to result in increased disease resistance of colonies. The relatedness of two hosts did not appear to affect the transmission of the parasite between them, but this was most likely because the parasite tested was a virulent generalist that is adapted to transmit between distantly related hosts. The resistance to the parasite was compared between small groups of ants of either high or low genetic diversity. No difference was found at high doses of the parasite, but a significant improvement in resistance in high genetic diversity groups was found at a low dose of the parasite. That there is genetic variation for disease resistance means that there is the potential for polyandry to produce more disease-resistant colonies. That this genetic variation can improve the resistance of groups even under the limited conditions tested suggests that polyandry may indeed produce colonies with improved resistance to disease.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic Diversity and Disease Resistance in Leaf-Cutting Ant Societies

Hughes

Boomsma

2004

Evol

112

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“…For example, a colony of honeybees, Apis mellifera, can rapidly adjust the numbers of foragers and receivers involved in nectar collection and storage (Seeley 1995;. Similar changes in division of labour occur in practically all species, and are characterized by workers performing one or a subset of tasks for a relatively long period (days or more; Oster & Wilson 1978;Robinson 1992;Seeley 1995). Another way that work allocation can change is by task switching, in which a worker capable of performing several tasks allocates more of her time to one of them (Gordon 1989).…”

Section:  2001 the Association For The Study Of Animal Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 99%

Leaf caching in the leafcutting ant Atta colombica: organizational shift, task partitioning and making the best of a bad job

Hart

Ratnieks

2001

Animal Behaviour

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“…individuals that consistently perform a single task (Oster and Wilson 1978). Subsequent work has shown that task switching is pervasive in social insects (Calabi, 1988;Gordon, 1989;Robinson, 1992). Other work has shown that activity levels vary greatly among individuals (Jaisson et al, 1988;Schmid-Hempel, 1990) and among task groups .…”

Section: -7653mentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of social group size on information transfer and task allocation

1996

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SummarySocial animals exchange information during social interaction. The rate of interaction and, hence, the rate of information exchange, typically changes with density and density may be affected by the size of the social group. We investigate models in which each individual may be engaged in one of several tasks. For example, the different tasks could represent alternative foraging locations exploited by an ant colony. An individual's decision about which task to pursue depends both on environmental stimuli and on interactions among individuals. We examine how group size affects the allocation of individuals among the various tasks. Analysis of the models shows the following. (1) Simple interactions among individuals with limited ability to process information can lead to group behaviour that closely approximates the predictions of evolutionary optimality models, (2) Because per capita rates of social interaction may increase with group size, larger groups may be more efficient than smaller ones at tracking a changing environment, (3) Group behaviour is determined both by each individual's interaction with environmental stimuli and by social exchange of information. To keep these processes in balance across a range of group sizes, organisms are predicted to regulate per capita rates of social interaction and (4) Stochastic models show, at least in some cases, that the results described here occur even in small groups of approximately ten individuals.

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Regulation of Division of Labor in Insect Societies

Cited by 1,101 publications

References 125 publications

Genetic Diversity and Disease Resistance in Leaf-Cutting Ant Societies

Genetic Diversity and Disease Resistance in Leaf-Cutting Ant Societies

Leaf caching in the leafcutting ant Atta colombica: organizational shift, task partitioning and making the best of a bad job

Effects of social group size on information transfer and task allocation

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