Observation of plugging behaviour reveals entrance‐guarding schedule of morphologically specialized caste in <i>Colobopsis nipponicus</i>

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

doi:10.1111/eth.12877

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…While many studies have focused on only a few prominent tasks, such as foraging, building and brood care (e.g. [ 11 , 65 , 66 ]), high specialization has been observed in other tasks, such as guarding [ 48 , 67 ], grooming [ 68 , 69 ] and inactive [ 70 ]. At this point, how many tasks exist in insect societies is still not completely understood.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

2021

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Social insects are one of the best examples of complex self-organized systems exhibiting task allocation. How task allocation is achieved is the most fascinating question in behavioural ecology and complex systems science. However, it is difficult to comprehensively characterize task allocation patterns due to behavioural complexity, such as the individual variation, context dependency and chronological variation. Thus, it is imperative to quantify individual behaviours and integrate them into colony levels. Here, we applied bipartite network analyses to characterize individual-behaviour relationships. We recorded the behaviours of all individuals with verified age in ant colonies and analysed the individual-behaviour relationship at the individual, module and network levels. Bipartite network analysis successfully detected the module structures, illustrating that certain individuals performed a subset of behaviours (i.e. task groups). We confirmed age polyethism by comparing age between modules. Additionally, to test the daily rhythm of the executed tasks, the data were partitioned between daytime and nighttime, and a bipartite network was re-constructed. This analysis supported that there was no daily rhythm in the tasks performed. These findings suggested that bipartite network analyses could untangle complex task allocation patterns and provide insights into understanding the division of labour.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

2021

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“…The number of tasks within a colony is one of the fundamental factors in task allocation research. While many studies have focused on only a few prominent tasks, such as foraging, building, and brood care (e.g., [51][52][53]), high specialisation has been observed in other tasks, such as guarding [36,54], grooming [55,56], and inactive [57]. At this point, how many tasks exist in insect societies is still not completely understood.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

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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“…It has been proposed that since very few members of an ant colony reproduce, the colony as a whole may behave as a ‘superorganism’, with natural selection being shifted to the colony level [6] , [7] , [8] . Evidence for this is also seen through the existence of certain morphological forms that seem to have evolved through ecological specialization to benefit colony functioning (for example: specialized door-blocking castes in Cephalotes [9] and Colobopsis [10] ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A colony-level optimization model provides a potential mechanism for the evolution of novel castes in eusocial ant colonies

Nag

Bhat

2022

Heliyon

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

Cited by 6 publications

References 39 publications

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

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

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

A colony-level optimization model provides a potential mechanism for the evolution of novel castes in eusocial ant colonies

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