Caste in a primitive ant: absence of age polyethism in amblyopone.
Polyethism, the divison of labor among members of a colony, is based on worker age and size in ants. In the ponerine species Amblyopone pallipes worker behavior is independent of age, therefore temporal castes, or groups of age-related task specialists, do not exist. This primitive caste system, previously unknown in ants, appears to be correlated with the peculiar characteristics of the life history and ecology of Amblyopone.
Traniello
J F
JF