Waste management in the leaf-cutting ant Acromyrmex echinatior: the role of worker size, age and plasticity
Waste management in the leaf-cutting ant Acromyrmex echinatior: the role of worker size, age and plasticity
复制标题
切叶蚁 Acromyrmex echinatior 的废物管理：工蚁体型、年龄和可塑性的作用
DOI：
10.1007/s00265-010-0936-x
复制
发表时间：
2010
影响因子：
2.3
通讯作者：
W. Hughes
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Sarah J. Waddington;W. Hughes
分工是许多群居动物成功的标志。这可能是特别重要的废物管理方面，因为废物往往含有病原体或有害毒素和工人的专业化可以减少组成员的数量暴露于it.In这里，我们研究废物管理的真菌养殖，切叶蚁，Acromyrmex echinatior，其中废物管理是必要的，以保护他们脆弱的真菌作物。通过用特定任务的油漆颜色标记蚂蚁，我们发现从事废物管理的工人和觅食的工人之间有明确的分工，至少在3天标记期的精细时间尺度内。这种劳动分工受到年龄和体型的影响，废物管理工人往往比觅食工人更小更年轻。防止污染蚂蚁进入殖民地的作用主要由中型工蚁完成。当废物的水平被实验性地增加时，大多数对清除废物做出反应的蚂蚁是以前在巢穴内从事任务的工人，而不是外部废物工人或觅食者。这些响应的工人往往是年轻人和中等身材。令人惊讶的是，做出反应的蚂蚁随后能够回到真菌花园中工作，但它们这样做的可能性取决于它们的年龄和暴露在废物中的时间长度。研究结果表明，劳动分工的重要性与废物管理在A。echinatior和显示，这是适应不断变化的需求。
Division of labour is the hallmark of the success of many social animals. It may be especially important with regard to waste management because waste often contains pathogens or hazardous toxins and worker specialisation can reduce the number of group members exposed to it. Here we examine waste management in a fungus-farming, leaf-cutting ant, Acromyrmex echinatior, in which waste management is necessary to protect their vulnerable fungal crop. By marking ants with task-specific paint colours, we found clear division of labour between workers that engage in waste management and those that forage, at least during the fine timescale of the 3-day marking period. This division of labour was influenced by both age and size, with waste management workers tending to be smaller and younger than foragers. The role of preventing contaminated ants from entering the colony was fulfilled mainly by medium-sized workers. When the level of waste was experimentally increased, most of the ants that responded to remove the waste were workers previously engaged in tasks inside the nest rather than external waste workers or foragers. These responding workers tended to be young and medium-sized. Surprisingly, the responding ants were subsequently able to revert back to working within the fungus garden, but the probability of them doing so depended on their age and the length of time they were exposed to waste. The results demonstrate the importance of division of labour with regard to waste management in A. echinatior and show that this is adaptable to changing needs.