Ant activity-rest rhythms vary with age and interaction frequencies of workers

Fujioka, Haruna; Abe, Masato S.; Okada, Yasukazu

doi:10.1007/s00265-019-2641-8

Cited by 20 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Our results suggest that major workers can actively fill up a vacancy in the entrance-guarding task. Social interaction might play an important role in coordinating the ants' work schedule (e.g., Fujioka, Abe, & Okada, 2019), but we did not observe the ants' behaviour inside the nest. A previous study on Cephalotes has also shown that nests have more soldiers than nest entrances in the wild and laboratory (Powell, 2008;Powell & Dornhaus, 2013), which suggests that such deployment patterns may be a convergent evolution pattern in physical castes of ants.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 56%

Observation of plugging behaviour reveals entrance‐guarding schedule of morphologically specialized caste in Colobopsis nipponicus

2019

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The success of social insects is often attributed to the specialized morphologies and behaviours of workers. One of the most elaborate specializations in ant species is the workers’ plugging behaviour, in which their uniquely shaped heads are used for nest defence. These species generally nest in tree cavities. Without morphologically specialized workers (major workers) plugging the nest entrance, nests are easily attacked and replaced by conspecific and heterospecific cavity‐dwelling ants and other predators. Therefore, major workers are expected to defend the nest at all times. However, empirical evidence on the social time investment for nest defence is still lacking. Here, we investigated how major workers of Colobopsis nipponicus achieve nest defence (plugging behaviour) in terms of their work schedule. Our results showed that the nests had more major workers than entrances. The observation of artificial plastic nests over 6 days in the laboratory revealed that the nest entrance was guarded almost continuously by multiple major workers. The entrance‐guarding schedule was not equally divided among major workers, and there were no clear shift patterns in the timing of changeovers. We highlight the importance of investigating the time investment of workers to fully understand the defence strategies of this morphologically specialized caste.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 56%

Observation of plugging behaviour reveals entrance‐guarding schedule of morphologically specialized caste in Colobopsis nipponicus

2019

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“…Separate colonies of even a single species could also conceivably vary in their activity patterns. Differences in the activity patterns of individuals (Cole 1992;Hatcher 1992;Hayashi et al 2012), the outcomes of interactions between workers (Fujioka et al 2019), the quantity and developmental Behavioral Ecology (2019), XX(XX), 1-9. doi:10.1093/beheco/arz135…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sources of intraspecific variation in the collective tempo and synchrony of ant societies

et al. 2019

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Populations of independently oscillating agents can sometimes synchronize. In the context of animal societies, conspicuous synchronization of activity is known in some social insects. However, the causes of variation in synchrony within and between species have received little attention. We repeatedly assessed the short-term activity cycle of ant colonies (Temnothorax rugatulus) and monitored the movements of individual workers and queens within nests. We detected persistent differences between colonies in the waveform properties of their collective activity oscillations, with some colonies consistently oscillating much more erratically than others. We further demonstrate that colony crowding reduces the rhythmicity (i.e., the consistent timing) of oscillations. Workers in both erratic and rhythmic colonies spend less time active than completely isolated workers, but workers in erratic colonies oscillate out of phase with one another. We further show that the queen’s absence can impair the ability of colonies to synchronize worker activity and that behavioral differences between queens are linked with the waveform properties of their societies.

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“…We found that there was no daytime and nighttime module structure, suggesting that the task allocation pattern was consistent throughout the day. Interestingly, solitary ants show circadian activity rhythms even under constant light conditions [47][48][49]. Previous studies have shown that nurse ants take care of the brood throughout the day [47,48].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In general, ants show circadian activity rhythms, and our focal ant species are basically diurnal [47][48][49]. It is possible that the level of task performance would change between day and night.…”

Section: Temporal Characteristics: Daily Rhythmmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bipartite network analysis of ant-task associations reveals task groups and absence of colonial daily activity

Fujioka

Okada

Abe

2020

Preprint

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Division of labour is the key factor leading to higher-order systems such as cooperative animal groups. How division of labour is achieved without a central control is one of the most fascinating questions in behavioural ecology and complex systems science. Social insects are one of the best examples of complex self-organised systems through local interactions. However, it is difficult to comprehensively understand division of labour due to the chronological and individual variation in behaviours, and the differences between social environments. Thus, it is imperative to quantify individual behaviours and integrate them into colony levels. Here, we demonstrate that network analyses on individual-behaviour relationships can be valid for characterising the task allocation patterns. We recorded the behaviours of all individuals with verified age in colonies of monomorphic ant and analysed the individual-behaviour relationship at individual, sub-network, and network-levels. We detected the "task groups" including subsets of individuals and behaviour, and the patterns of task groups were consistent throughout the day. We also found a relationship between the age and the characteristics of individuals within the network. These findings suggest that bipartite network analyses can untangle the complex task allocation patterns and provide novel insights into understanding how division of labour is achieved.How the simple elements at a lower level, for example, a single cell and an individual, can evolve to higher-level systems, for instance, multicellular organisms and animal groups, through natural selection has been a central question in evolutionary biology [1]. Such systems often exhibit division of labour through efficient task allocation, in which different elements perform different tasks [2]. It has been considered that division of labour can be a primary advantage for social evolution [3,4]. Therefore, it is crucial to understand how they achieve division of labour.Social insects are one of the most sophisticated examples of division of labour because individuals exhibit a reproductive division of labour between queen(s) and workers; and among workers various tasks are allocated. For example, task allocation for nursing, foraging, nest defence, or cleaning is accomplished without central controls in a colony [5][6][7]. To elucidate how such colonies achieve task allocation through interactions among individuals, we need to reveal the behavioural rules underlying it. However, it is difficult not only to determine the behavioural rules but also to describe and quantify the individual behavioural patterns. The difficulty in measuring these parameters arises from the fact that a large number of individuals comprise a colony, and that the behavioural differences depend on internal states, experience, colony size, demands from the nestmates, or environment, that can change across time [8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. Moreover, colonies generally consist of individuals with different characteristics such as morphology, age, ...

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Ant activity-rest rhythms vary with age and interaction frequencies of workers

Cited by 20 publications

References 30 publications

Observation of plugging behaviour reveals entrance‐guarding schedule of morphologically specialized caste in Colobopsis nipponicus

Observation of plugging behaviour reveals entrance‐guarding schedule of morphologically specialized caste in Colobopsis nipponicus

Sources of intraspecific variation in the collective tempo and synchrony of ant societies

Bipartite network analysis of ant-task associations reveals task groups and absence of colonial daily activity

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