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Ant larvae regulate worker foraging behavior and ovarian activity in a dose-dependent manner.

Yuko Ulrich1, Dominic Burns2, Romain Libbrecht3

  • 1Laboratory of Social Evolution and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA.

Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology
|September 13, 2016
PubMed
Summary

Insect societies exhibit division of labor through simple rules and social signals. This study quantifies worker responses to larval signals in ants, revealing progressive foraging and inhibited ovarian activation, especially in smaller colonies.

Keywords:
automated behavioral analysisdivision of laborlarvaeovarian developmentsocial behaviorsocial communication

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Area of Science:

  • Behavioral Ecology
  • Social Insect Biology
  • Evolutionary Biology

Background:

  • Division of labor in insect societies is driven by individual responses to social signals.
  • Colony-level phenotypes emerge from these individual responses.
  • Empirical quantification of signal-response dynamics at the colony level is limited.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To quantify behavioral and physiological worker responses to larval social signals in the queenless clonal raider ant, *Cerapachys biroi*.
  • To investigate how colony size and worker-to-larvae ratios influence these responses.
  • To understand the link between individual plasticity and colony-level phenotypes.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized automated behavioral quantification to track worker activities.
  • Measured oocyte size to assess physiological responses (ovarian activation).
  • Experimentally manipulated colony sizes and worker-to-larvae ratios.

Main Results:

  • Ant workers increased foraging activity in response to larvae.
  • Ovarian activation in workers was progressively inhibited by larval presence.
  • These behavioral and physiological responses were more pronounced in smaller colonies.
  • Responses varied with different worker-to-larvae ratios.

Conclusions:

  • Individual behavioral and physiological plasticity in response to social cues contributes to colony-level organization.
  • Colony size significantly modulates the intensity of worker responses to larval signals.
  • This research provides empirical data on signal-response dynamics in social insects, enhancing our understanding of collective behavior.