The organization of working teams' in social insects
1School of Biological Sciences, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, UK.
Trends in Ecology & Evolution
|January 14, 2011
Abstract:
Preliminary optimization models for social insects suggested that efficiency should be promoted by having one specialist worker caste per essential task. However, such extreme specialization would greatly limit the ability of colonies to respond to changing situations and could lead to long periods of recession in a colony's economy. Recent studies show that by using simple behavioural rules social insects can reallocate tasks and form cooperative groups and even assembly lines that have far greater flexibility than would be the case with extremely specialized physical castes.
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