Dataset Information

Task allocation in a cooperative society: specialized castes or age-dependent switching among ant workers.

ABSTRACT: Some ant species have multiple worker castes that differ in body size; workers in one caste remain in the colony and those in the other forage outside the colony (caste polyethism). In other species, all workers engage in both tasks, but the younger workers remain in the colony and the older workers forage (age polyethism). Here, we ask which of these two is the most efficient for colony level performance when foragers suffer a higher daily mortality than workers in the colony and when the optimal worker size differs between two tasks. We studied two models: in the stationary colony model, the colony size and composition remain constant, and the amount of excess resources that can be used for producing reproductive individuals is maximized; in the growing colony model, all of the resources obtained are used for producing new workers, and the rate of the colony growth is maximized. In both models, we observed similar results: caste polyethism is more advantageous than age polyethism if the difference in mortality between the two tasks is small and the difference in the optimal size is large. In the opposite situation, the age polyethism is more advantageous.

SUBMITTER: Iwasa Y

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7039887 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Task allocation in a cooperative society: specialized castes or age-dependent switching among ant workers.

Iwasa Yoh Y Yamaguchi Sachi S

Scientific reports 20200224 1

Some ant species have multiple worker castes that differ in body size; workers in one caste remain in the colony and those in the other forage outside the colony (caste polyethism). In other species, all workers engage in both tasks, but the younger workers remain in the colony and the older workers forage (age polyethism). Here, we ask which of these two is the most efficient for colony level performance when foragers suffer a higher daily mortality than workers in the colony and when the optim ...[more]

PMID: 32094370

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Project description:Allocation of goods is a key feature in defining the connection between the individual and the collective scale in any society. Both the process by which goods are to be distributed, and the resulting allocation to the members of the society may affect the success of the population as a whole. One of the most striking natural examples of a highly successful cooperative society is the ant colony which often acts as a single superorganism. In particular, each individual within the ant colony has a "communal stomach" which is used to store and share food with the other colony members by mouth to mouth feeding. Sharing food between communal stomachs allows the colony as a whole to get its food requirements and, more so, allows each individual within the colony to reach its nutritional intake target. The vast majority of colony members do not forage independently but obtain their food through secondary interactions in which food is exchanged between individuals. The global effect of this exchange is not well understood. To gain better understanding into this process we used fluorescence imaging to measure how food from a single external source is distributed and mixed within a Camponotus sanctus ant colony. Using entropic measures to quantify food-blending, we show that while collected food flows into all parts of the colony it mixes only partly. We show that mixing is controlled by the ants' interaction rule which implies that only a fraction of the maximal potential is actually transferred. This rule leads to a robust blending process: i.e., neither the exact food volume that is transferred, nor the interaction schedule are essential to generate the global outcome. Finally, we show how the ants' interaction rules may optimize a trade-off between fast dissemination and efficient mixing. Our results regarding the distribution of a single food source provide a baseline for future studies on distributed regulation of multiple food sources in social insect colonies.

Dataset Information

Task allocation in a cooperative society: specialized castes or age-dependent switching among ant workers.

Publications

Task allocation in a cooperative society: specialized castes or age-dependent switching among ant workers.

Similar Datasets

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