Hidden aggression in termite workers: plastic defensive behaviour dependent upon social context
Hidden aggression in termite workers: plastic defensive behaviour dependent upon social context
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DOI：
10.1016/j.anbehav.2011.12.022
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发表时间：
2012-03-01
期刊：
影响因子：
2.5
通讯作者：
Miura, Toru
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Ishikawa, Yuki;Miura, Toru
社会昆虫群落是自组织的系统，通过改变某些种姓或从事特定任务的个人的相对比例来应对环境条件的变化。虽然已知白蚁根据筑巢种姓的比例来调节形态特化士兵的比例，但士兵分化过程需要相对较长的时间才能完成。因此，白蚁被认为使用其他塑料和灵活的机制来进行群体防御。我们量化了士兵、伪门(工人)和湿木白蚁霍多特莫斯·斯约斯特迪的繁殖者(新)的防御行为。当种姓的个体暴露在入侵者面前时，士兵表现出最有力的防御行为，其次是伪门，然后是繁殖。虽然士兵和繁殖者的攻击性水平与伴随的种姓无关，但伪门攻击性更具可塑性，并取决于存在的其他种姓。当与生殖器配对时，伪门对敌人表现出高度的攻击性。然而，当他们与士兵配对时，伪门攻击水平仍然很低，这表明伪门根据社会背景缓和了他们的防御行为。在社会行为方面的可塑性可能有助于群体防御所需的快速和灵活的反应。(C)2011年，动物行为研究协会。爱思唯尔有限公司出版。保留所有权利。
Social insect colonies are self-organized systems that respond to changes in environmental conditions by altering the relative proportions of certain castes or individuals engaged in specific tasks. While termites are known to regulate the ratio of morphologically specialized soldiers in response to the proportion of nestmate castes, the soldier differentiation process requires a relatively long time to be accomplished. Consequently, termites are thought to employ other plastic and flexible mechanisms for colony defence. We quantified the defensive behaviours of soldiers, pseudergates (workers) and reproductives (neotenics) of the damp-wood termite Hodotermopsis sjostedti. When individuals of the caste were exposed to an intruder, soldiers exhibited the most vigorous defensive behaviour, followed by pseudergates and then reproductives. While the aggression levels of soldiers and reproductives were independent of the accompanying castes, pseudergate aggression was more plastic and depended on the other castes present. When paired with reproductives, pseudergates exhibited high levels of aggression towards enemies. However, pseudergate aggression levels remained low when they were paired with soldiers, suggesting that pseudergates moderated their defensive behaviour depending on social context. Plasticity with respect to social behaviours may facilitate rapid and flexible responses required for colony defence. (C) 2011 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.