Ant larvae regulate worker foraging behavior and ovarian activity in a dose-dependent manner.
Division of labor in insect societies relies on simple behavioral rules, whereby individual colony members respond to dynamic signals indicating the need for certain tasks to be performed. This in turn gives rise to colony-level phenotypes. However, empirical studies quantifying colony-level signal-response dynamics are lacking. Here, we make use of the unusual biology and experimental amenability of the queenless clonal raider antCerapachys biroi,to jointly quantify the behavioral and physiological responses of workers to a social signal emitted by larvae. Using automated behavioral quantification and oocyte size measurements in colonies of different sizes and with different worker to larvae ratios, we show that the workers in a colony respond to larvae by increasing foraging activity and inhibiting ovarian activation in a progressive manner, and that these responses are stronger in smaller colonies. This work adds to our knowledge of the processes that link plastic individual behavioral/physiological responses to colony-level phenotypes in social insect colonies.
Laboratory of Social Evolution and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA.
Yuko
Y
Ulrich
Laboratory of Social Evolution and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA; Ant Lab, School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, UK.
Dominic
D
Burns
Laboratory of Social Evolution and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA; Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Switzerland.
Romain
R
Libbrecht
Laboratory of Social Evolution and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA.
Daniel J C
DJ
Kronauer
automated behavioral analysis; division of labor; larvae; ovarian development; social behavior; social communication