The behavioral ecology of variation in social insects

Jandt, Jennifer M.; Gordon, D.M.

doi:10.1016/j.cois.2016.02.012

Cited by 46 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 83 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…A recent study on another invasive ant, the polygyne form of the red imported fire ant Solenopsis invicta , similarly showed high variability among experimental colonies, even when collected at a single site (Bockoven, Wilder, & Eubanks, ). The causes of such high variability remain unknown and could arise from a variety of factors including colony genetics, environmental factors and colony composition (reviewed in Jandt et al., ), and it is known that natural selection can act on such variation (Gordon, ; Jandt & Gordon, ). Regardless of the underlying proximate mechanisms, our data suggest that selection could operate to maintain behavioural variation in a similar way throughout the native and invasive ranges.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Behaviour is a key predictor of invasion success in animals, and behavioural traits that are likely to influence the competitive abilities of an invasive species are diverse (reviewed in Chapple et al., ; Holway & Suarez, ; Phillips & Suarez, ). In social insects, different colonies can vary substantially in many traits and be subjected to natural selection (Gordon, ; Jandt & Gordon, ; Jandt et al., ). Activity, aggressiveness and boldness are all thought to be important factors in promoting fitness in a wide range of species (Biro & Stamps, ; Smith & Blumstein, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Behavioural variation and plasticity along an invasive ant introduction pathway

Felden

Paris

Chapple

et al. 2018

Journal of Animal Ecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Once established in new areas, introduced species may exhibit changes in their biology due to phenotypic plasticity, novel selection pressures and genetic drift. Moreover, the introduction process itself has been hypothesised to act as a selective filter for traits that promote invasiveness. We tested the hypothesis that behaviours thought to promote invasiveness-such as increased foraging activity and aggression-are selected for during invasion by comparing traits among native and introduced populations of the widespread Argentine ant (Linepithema humile). We studied Argentine ant populations in the native range in Argentina and in three invaded regions along an introduction pathway: California, Australia and New Zealand. In each region, we set up 32 experimental colonies to measure foraging activity and interspecific aggression in a subset of the study regions. These colonies were subject to experimental manipulation of carbohydrate availability and octopamine, a biogenic amine known to modulate behaviour in insects, to measure variation in behavioural plasticity. We found variation in foraging activity among populations, but this variation was not consistent with selection on behaviour in relation to the invasion process. We found that colonies with limited access to carbohydrates exhibited unchanged exploratory behaviour, but higher exploitation activity and lower aggression. Colonies given octopamine consistently increased foraging behaviour (both exploration and exploitation), as well as aggression when also sugar-deprived. There was no difference in the degree of behavioural response to our experimental treatments along the introduction pathway. We did not find support for selection of behavioural traits associated with invasiveness along the Argentine ant's introduction pathway or clear evidence for an association between the introduction process and variation in behavioural plasticity. These results indicate that mechanisms promote behavioural variation in a similar fashion both in native and introduced ranges. Our results challenge the assumption that introduced populations always perform better in key behavioural traits hypothesised to be associated with invasion success.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behavioural variation and plasticity along an invasive ant introduction pathway

Felden

Paris

Chapple

et al. 2018

Journal of Animal Ecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In a similar way, schools of fish, flocks of birds, and wild baboons are able to move coherently in a common direction using only local interactions with their neighbors (Okubo, 1986;Sumpter, 2010;Kao et al, 2014;Strandburg-Peshkin et al, 2015). A different situation arises in the context of other social insect colonies, where workers are able to collectively allocate themselves to a variety of tasks, such as foraging, brood care, and nest construction, and to change their allocation as a function of the colony needs (Pinter-Wollman et al, 2013;Gordon, 2016;Jandt and Gordon, 2016). The distinction between these two situations has been formalized in the context of swarm robotics by Brambilla et al (2013) and organized in two categories: consensus achievement and task allocation (see Figure 1).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Best-of-n Problem in Robot Swarms: Formalization, State of the Art, and Novel Perspectives

2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The ability to collectively choose the best among a finite set of alternatives is a fundamental cognitive skill for robot swarms. In this paper, we propose a formal definition of the best-of-n problem and a taxonomy that details its possible variants. Based on this taxonomy, we analyze the swarm robotics literature focusing on the decision-making problem dealt with by the swarm. We find that, so far, the literature has primarily focused on certain variants of the best-of-n problem, while other variants have been the subject of only a few isolated studies. Additionally, we consider a second taxonomy about the design methodologies used to develop collective decision-making strategies. Based on this second taxonomy, we provide an in-depth survey of the literature that details the strategies proposed so far and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of current design methodologies.

show abstract

“…Colonies vary in many aspects of their behavior (Jandt and Gordon, 2016). In harvester ants, colonies vary in the regulation of foraging activity (Gordon, 1991; Gordon et al, 2011).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Interactions between Harvester Ants on Forager Decisions

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Harvester ant colonies adjust their foraging activity to day-to-day changes in food availability and hour-to-hour changes in environmental conditions. This collective behavior is regulated through interactions, in the form of brief antennal contacts, between outgoing foragers and returning foragers with food. Here we consider how an ant, waiting in the entrance chamber just inside the nest entrance, uses its accumulated experience of interactions to decide whether to leave the nest to forage. Using videos of field observations, we tracked the interactions and foraging decisions of ants in the entrance chamber. Outgoing foragers tended to interact with returning foragers at higher rates than ants that returned to the deeper nest and did not forage. To provide a mechanistic framework for interpreting these results, we develop a decision model in which ants make decisions based upon a noisy accumulation of individual contacts with returning foragers. The model can reproduce core trends and realistic distributions for individual ant interaction statistics, and suggests possible mechanisms by which foraging activity may be regulated at an individual ant level.

show abstract

The behavioral ecology of variation in social insects

Cited by 46 publications

References 83 publications

Behavioural variation and plasticity along an invasive ant introduction pathway

Behavioural variation and plasticity along an invasive ant introduction pathway

The Best-of-n Problem in Robot Swarms: Formalization, State of the Art, and Novel Perspectives

Effect of Interactions between Harvester Ants on Forager Decisions

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About