Foraging for Work and Age‐Based Polyethism: The Roles of Age and Previous Experience on Task Choice in Ants
Foraging for Work and Age‐Based Polyethism: The Roles of Age and Previous Experience on Task Choice in Ants
复制标题
工作觅食和基于年龄的多民族主义：年龄和以往经验对蚂蚁任务选择的作用
DOI：
10.1111/j.1439-0310.2004.01023.x
复制
发表时间：
2004
期刊：
影响因子：
1.7
通讯作者：
P. Nonacs
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Frédéric Tripet;P. Nonacs
在社会性昆虫中，群体通常在工人行为中表现出时间多态性，例如工人随着年龄的增长在任务之间遵循可预测的变化模式。这种模式通常会导致工蜂首先做一项安全的任务，比如照顾雏鸟，然后结束生命去做最危险的任务，比如觅食。这种模式可能有两种机制：（1）基于年龄的任务分配，其中老化过程本身使工人倾向于转向更危险的任务;（2）觅食工作，蚂蚁从有太多相关工人的任务转向需要做的任务。我们测试了这些机制的相对影响，通过建立巢Camponotus floridanus与已知年龄和以前的任务专业化的工人的预定组合。结果支持这两种机制。巢完全育雏抚育工人组成的最古老的工人优先切换到觅食。然而，在巢最初完全由觅食，招标和觅食的最终分配是没有不同的随机任务切换，因此支持觅食工作。因此，在C. floridanus任务分配机制有方向性。切换到更危险的任务是受年龄影响的，但切换到不太危险的任务是与年龄无关的。研究结果还表明，年龄较大的工人在他们的任务选择行为更灵活。年轻的工人更倾向于选择巢内任务。最后，过去经验的影响往往会让蚂蚁继续从事熟悉的任务。基于几种机制的任务分配可以在以下之间取得平衡：（1）将最疲惫的工人集中到最危险的任务中;（2）提高任务绩效水平;（3）保持行为灵活性以应对人口统计学扰动。行为的灵活程度可能与物种中这种扰动的频率有关。
In social insects, colonies commonly show temporal polyethism in worker behavior, such that a worker follows a predictable pattern of changes between tasks as it ages. This pattern usually leads from workers first doing a safe task like brood care, to ending their lives doing the most dangerous tasks like foraging. Two mechanisms could potentially underlie this pattern: (1) age-based task allocation, where the aging process itself predisposes workers to switch to more dangerous tasks; and (2) foraging for work, where ants switch to tasks that need doing from tasks which have too many associated workers. We tested the relative influence of these mechanisms by establishing nests of Camponotus floridanus with predetermined combinations of workers of known age and previous task specialization. The results supported both mechanisms. Nests composed of entirely brood-tending workers had the oldest workers preferentially switching to foraging. However, in nests initially composed entirely of foragers, the final distribution of tenders and foragers was not different from random task-switching and therefore supportive of foraging for work. Thus, it appears that in C. floridanus there is directionality to the mechanisms of task allocation. Switching to more dangerous tasks is age-influenced, but switching to less dangerous tasks is age-independent. The results also suggest that older workers are more flexible in their task choice behavior. Younger workers are more biased towards choosing within-nest tasks. Finally, there are effects of previous experience that tend to keep ants in familiar tasks. Task allocation based on several mechanisms may balance between: (1) concentrating the most worn workers into the most dangerous tasks; (2) increasing task performance levels; and (3) maintaining behavioral flexibility to respond to demographic perturbations. The degree to which behavior is flexible may correlate to the frequency of such perturbations in a species.