The guard honey bee: ontogeny and behavioural variability of workers performing a specialized task

Moore, Allen J.; Breed, Michael D.; Moor, Mary Jo

doi:10.1016/s0003-3472(87)80172-0

Cited by 130 publications

(153 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Although the concept originally arose in reference to human assembly workers, scientists now use the term to describe task differentiation in a variety of animal societies. The classic study systems for division of labor are eusocial insects, such as ants, bees, wasps, and termites, which exhibit nonreproductive division of labor in the following three forms: (i) polymorphisms among worker castes (subcastes), such as those described in several ant species (e.g., leaf-cutter ants) (2-4); (ii) age-dependent task differentiation, known as age or temporal polyethism (5), as seen in honey bees (6); and (iii) task differentiation in the absence of morphological variation within a caste (7)(8)(9). The latter pattern likely is the most broadly occurring not only in social insects, most of which lack worker polymorphism, but also in a diverse array of other social taxa (10,11), and it may even emerge at the origin of sociality (12).…”

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confidence: 99%

RETRACTED: Animal personality aligns task specialization and task proficiency in a spider society

Wright

Holbrook

Pruitt

2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Classic theory on division of labor implicitly assumes that task specialists are more proficient at their jobs than generalists and specialists in other tasks; however, recent data suggest that this might not hold for societies that lack discrete worker polymorphisms, which constitute the vast majority of animal societies. The facultatively social spider Anelosimus studiosus lacks castes, but females exhibit either a "docile" or "aggressive" phenotype. Here we observed the propensity of individual females of either phenotype to perform various tasks (i.e., prey capture, web building, parental care, and colony defense) in mixed-phenotype colonies. We then measured the performance outcomes of singleton individuals of either phenotype at each task to determine their proficiencies. Aggressive females participated more in prey capture, web building, and colony defense, whereas docile females engaged more in parental care. In staged trials, aggressive individuals were more effective at capturing prey, constructing webs, and defending the colony, whereas docile females were more effective at rearing large quantities of brood. Thus, individuals' propensity to perform tasks and their task proficiencies appear to be adaptively aligned in this system. Moreover, because the docile/aggressive phenotypes are heritable, these data suggest that withincolony variation is maintained because of advantages gleaned by division of labor.behavioral syndrome | social organization | cooperation | temperament | Araneae

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confidence: 99%

RETRACTED: Animal personality aligns task specialization and task proficiency in a spider society

Wright

Holbrook

Pruitt

2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…In addition, given the short average lifespan of workers (ca. 20 d) (17), individual Jataí guards often perform this task for a long duration, 5 d or more (15), compared with approximately 1 d in the honey bee (18). The lengthy careers of Jataí guards are more characteristic of a species with physically specialized guards or soldiers, as in ants or termites, and while carrying out previous studies on Jataí, we noted that guards appeared to be bigger than foragers.…”

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confidence: 67%

A morphologically specialized soldier caste improves colony defense in a neotropical eusocial bee

Grüter

Menezes

Imperatriz-Fonseca

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

127

106

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Division of labor among workers is common in insect societies and is thought to be important in their ecological success. In most species, division of labor is based on age (temporal castes), but workers in some ants and termites show morphological specialization for particular tasks (physical castes). Large-headed soldier ants and termites are well-known examples of this specialization. However, until now there has been no equivalent example of physical worker subcastes in social bees or wasps. Here we provide evidence for a physical soldier subcaste in a bee. In the neotropical stingless bee Tetragonisca angustula, nest defense is performed by two groups of guards, one hovering near the nest entrance and the other standing on the wax entrance tube. We show that both types of guards are 30% heavier than foragers and of different shape; foragers have relatively larger heads, whereas guards have larger legs. Low variation within each subcaste results in negligible size overlap between guards and foragers, further indicating that they are distinct physical castes. In addition, workers that remove garbage from the nest are of intermediate size, suggesting that they might represent another unrecognized caste. Guards or soldiers are reared in low but sufficient numbers (1-2% of emerging workers), considering that <1% usually perform this task. When challenged by the obligate robber bee Lestrimelitta limao, an important natural enemy, larger workers were able to fight for longer before being defeated by the much larger robber. This discovery opens up opportunities for the comparative study of physical castes in social insects, including the question of why soldiers appear to be so much rarer in bees than in ants or termites.Meliponini | caste evolution D ivision of labor among workers is nearly universal in eusocial insects (1-5). In most species, this division is based on temporal subcastes, in which workers specialize in different tasks at different ages ("age polyethism") (2, 4, 5). Physical worker subcastes (i.e., groups of workers with morphological adaptations for particular tasks) are less common (4-6). Only ∼15% of all ant genera contain species with physical worker subcastes, and no species of bee or wasp is known to have a division of labor based on physical subcastes (4-6). Where physical worker subcastes occur, they appear to benefit the colony by increasing the efficiency of key tasks such as defense, but have the disadvantage of preventing a colony from rapidly adjusting caste ratios if necessary (4-6). In addition, extreme subcastes, such as large-bodied soldiers, are more costly to rear and have a limited task repertoire (4). It also has been argued that individual-level selection might prevent the evolution of worker polymorphism if workers of different subcastes have varying opportunities to reproduce (5, 7). Given the number of ant and termite species with physical worker subcastes, the lack of evidence for physical worker subcastes in bees and wasps is an intriguing and ongoing puzzle in the study ...

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“…In European honey bees guarding is performed by a small proportion of the workers, and most of those that do guard do so for less than one day (Moore et al 1987). The maximum guarding duration was around 6-7 days (Moore et al 1987, Hunt et al 2003. African honey bees may guard for up to 10 days (Hunt et al 2003).…”

Section: Guarding Dura Onmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Natural History of Nest Defence in a Stingless Bee, Tetragonisca angustula (Latreille) (Hymenoptera: Apidae), with Two Distinct Types of Entrance Guards

Grüter¹,

Kärcher²,

Ratnieks³

2011

Neotrop. entomol.

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The stingless bee Tetragonsica angustula (Latreille) is the only social bee known that has two different types of nest entrance guards. As in other stingless bees and the honey bee one type stands on, in or near the nest entrance. The second type, so far only known in T. angustula, hovers near the nest entrance. In order to gain further understanding of this unique situation we studied guarding behaviour in both types of guards. Using marked bees, we found that individual worker bees guarded for a long time, up to 20 days, relative to their short, average c. 21 day, lifespan. Relatively few, 33%, individually marked guards were seen performing both types of guarding. The others only acted as standing guards. The bees that did perform both types did so over similar periods of their life. Hovering bouts were 57 min long, interrupted by breaks inside the hive of a few minutes (3.3 ± 1.5 min). Standing bouts were slightly longer (74 min) and also interrupted by short breaks (7.82 ± 6.45 min). Human breath, mimicking a vertebrate intruder, caused the guards to retreat into the nest rather than to attack the intruder. Some colonies protected themselves against intruders by closing the entrance during the night (32% and 56% of colonies during two nights). In summary, our results indicate that nest entrance guarding in T. angustula involves division of labour between the two types, in which most guarding individuals only act as standing guards.

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The guard honey bee: ontogeny and behavioural variability of workers performing a specialized task

Cited by 130 publications

References 17 publications

RETRACTED: Animal personality aligns task specialization and task proficiency in a spider society

RETRACTED: Animal personality aligns task specialization and task proficiency in a spider society

A morphologically specialized soldier caste improves colony defense in a neotropical eusocial bee

The Natural History of Nest Defence in a Stingless Bee, Tetragonisca angustula (Latreille) (Hymenoptera: Apidae), with Two Distinct Types of Entrance Guards

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