Enemy recognition is linked to soldier size in a polymorphic stingless bee

Grüter, Christoph; Segers, Francisca H. I. D.; Santos, Luana Leite Guimarães; Hammel, Benedikt; Zimmermann, Uwe; Nascimento, Fábio Santos do

doi:10.1098/rsbl.2017.0511

Cited by 22 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 18 publications

(36 reference statements)

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“…The defensive response of Tetragonisca angustula involves both ‘standing’ and ‘hovering’ guards (Wittmann 1985; Grüter et al 2011; Güter et al 2017a). The former take up positions on the nest entrance tube either just inside the entrance or around the outside of the tube near the entrance.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Colony-level non-associative plasticity of alarm responses in the stingless honey bee, Tetragonisca angustula

Jernigan

Birgiolas

McHugh

et al. 2018

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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In ants, bees, and other social Hymenoptera alarm pheromones are widely employed to coordinate colony nest defense. In that context, alarm pheromones elicit innate species-specific defensive behaviors. Therefore, in terms of classical conditioning, an alarm pheromone could act as an unconditioned stimulus (US). Here we test this hypothesis by establishing whether repeated exposure to alarm pheromone in different testing contexts modifies the alarm response. We evaluate colony level alarm responses in the stingless bee, Tetragonisca angustula, which has a morphologically distinct guard caste. First, we describe the overall topology of defense behaviors in the presence of an alarm pheromone. Second, we show that repeated, regular exposure to synthetic alarm pheromone reduces different components of the alarm response, and memory of that exposure decays over time. This observed decrease followed by recovery occurs over different time frames and is consistent with behavioral habituation. We further tested whether the alarm pheromone can act as a US to classically condition guards to modify their defense behaviors in the presence of a novel (conditioned) stimulus (CS). We found no consistent changes in the response to the CS. Our study demonstrates the possibility that colony-level alarm responses can be adaptively modified by experience in response to changing environmental threats. Further studies are now needed to reveal the extent of these habituation-like responses in regard to other pheromones, the potential mechanisms that underlie this phenomenon, and the range of adaptive contexts in which they function at the colony level.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The nests of T. angustula have a single tube-like defense structure with a single nest entrance/exit, patrolled by morphologically distinct guards (Grüter et al 2012; Hammel et al 2016; Grüter et al 2017a; Grüter et al 2017b). These guards perform two types of guarding behaviors, standing and hovering.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Colony-level non-associative plasticity of alarm responses in the stingless honey bee, Tetragonisca angustula

Jernigan

Birgiolas

McHugh

et al. 2018

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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“…There are cases where two different defence traits clearly support each other. We already mentioned the example where entrance guards that are better at detection are also better at fighting, both due to their increased body size [115,117]. In T. longispinosus, aggressive colonies are able to save more brood if they encounter a slavemaker scout before the slave raid has begun [43].…”

Section: Multi-level Defences or The Evolution Of Defence Portfoliosmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insect societies fight back: the evolution of defensive traits against social parasites

Grüter

Jongepier²,

Foitzik

2018

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Insect societies face many social parasites that exploit their altruistic behaviours or their resources. Due to the fitness costs these social parasites incur, hosts have evolved various behavioural, chemical, architectural and morphological defence traits. Similar to bacteria infecting multicellular hosts, social parasites have to successfully go through several steps to exploit their hosts. Here, we review how social insects try to interrupt this sequence of events. They can avoid parasite contact by choosing to nest in parasite-free locales or evade attacks by adapting their colony structure. Once social parasites attack, hosts attempt to detect them, which can be facilitated by adjustments in colony odour. If social parasites enter the nest, hosts can either aggressively defend their colony or take their young and flee. Nest structures are often shaped to prevent social parasite invasion or to safeguard host resources. Finally, if social parasites successfully establish themselves in host nests, hosts can rebel by killing the parasite brood or by reproducing in the parasites' presence. Hosts of social parasites can therefore develop multiple traits, leading to the evolution of complex defence portfolios of co-dependent traits. Social parasites can respond to these multi-level defences with counter-adaptations, potentially leading to geographical mosaics of coevolution.This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue 'Evolution of pathogen and parasite avoidance behaviours'.

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“…Workers of many species also differ in their morphology and this morphological variation is closely tied to division of labor in many species (ants: Hölldobler and Wilson 2009; bumblebees: Goulson et al 2002; stingless bees: Grüter et al 2017a, Baudier et al 2019; termites: Tian & Zhou 2014). Having different worker types for different tasks is likely to increase group performance because different worker types are more efficient at performing particular tasks (Oster and Wilson 1978; Powell and Franks 2005; Mertl and Traniello 2009; Grüter et al 2012, 2017b; Powell 2016). Even in species with gradual variation, i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large body size variation is linked to low communication success in tandem running ants

Wagner

Bachenberg

Simone

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Large body size variation is linked to low communication 1 success in tandem running ants 2 3 4 Abstract 22Diversity in animal groups is often assumed to increase group performance. In insect colonies, 23 genetic, behavioral and morphological variation among workers can improve colony 24 functioning and resilience. However, it has been hypothesized that during communication 25 processes, differences between workers, e.g. in body size, could also have negative effects. 26Tandem running is a common recruitment strategy in ants and allows a leader to guide a 27 nestmate follower to resources. A substantial proportion of tandem runs fail because leader and 28 follower loose contact. Using the ant Temnothorax nylanderi as a model system, we tested the 29 hypothesis that tandem running success is impaired if leader and follower differ in size. Indeed, 30 we found that the success rate of tandem pairs drops considerably as size variation increases: 31 only ~7% of tandem runs were successful when the leader-follower size difference exceeded 32 10%, whereas 80% of tandem runs were successful when ants differed less than 5% in body 33 length. One possible explanation is that ant size is linked to the preferred walking speed. Ants 34 did not choose partners of similar size, but extranidal workers were larger than intranidal 35 workers, which could reduce recruitment mistakes because it reduced the chance that very large 36 and very small ants perform tandem runs together. Our results suggest that phenotypic 37 differences between interacting workers can have negative effects on the efficiency of 38 communication processes. Whether phenotypic variation has positive or negative effects is 39 likely to depend on the task and the phenotypic trait that shows variation. 40 41 42 Social groups consist of individuals that differ from each other in a number of ways. For 43 instance, people working in a company may differ in experience, training, gender, ethnicity or 44 skills and this diversity can affect group performance and success. Scientists interested in 45 organizational theory have found that group diversity often has positive effects on group 46 performance, most likely because diverse groups possess a broader range of knowledge, 47

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Enemy recognition is linked to soldier size in a polymorphic stingless bee

Cited by 22 publications

References 18 publications

Colony-level non-associative plasticity of alarm responses in the stingless honey bee, Tetragonisca angustula

Colony-level non-associative plasticity of alarm responses in the stingless honey bee, Tetragonisca angustula

Insect societies fight back: the evolution of defensive traits against social parasites

Large body size variation is linked to low communication success in tandem running ants

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