Caste and division of labor in leaf-cutter ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Atta)
Caste and division of labor in leaf-cutter ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Atta)
复制标题
切叶蚁的种姓和劳动分工（膜翅目：蚁科：Atta）
DOI：
--
复制
发表时间：
1983
影响因子：
2.3
通讯作者：
E. Wilson
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
E. Wilson
研究了A.从最初的育雏（收集于哥斯达黎加）到实验室中4年的生长，到多达64，530只的工作种群，创始组中的工人几乎均匀分布，头宽范围为0.8-1.6 mm（图1和2）。1-3，表1）。这个范围是收获新鲜植物和培养共生真菌所需的最低限度。因此，在建立殖民地时，蚁后生产的个体工蜂数量接近最大值，这些个体工蜂能够共同完成所有的基本任务，当工蜂数量达到大约500只时，个体大小-频率分布开始向在大得多的蚁群中所看到的独特的“成年”形式转变。然而，在3-4年的时间里，包括最初的菌落成长为最大的研究，能源投资的模式仍然相对变化不大，最大的投资放在头部宽度为1.0-1.6 mm的大型小型到小型中型尺寸类别，换句话说，最低限度的必要尺寸范围（图1和2）。尽管在群体成长的最初阶段，群体规模-频率分布发生了很大的变化，但劳动分工只发生了相对较小的变化（表2）。有人提出了这样一个问题：在种姓制度的个体发生中，殖民地的规模和年龄哪个更重要？为了提供答案，我选择了4个3-4岁的蜂群，大约有10，000只工蜂，并将每个蜂群的数量减少到236只，使它们具有相同大小的自然年轻蜂群的大小频率分布特征。在第一个育雏周期结束时产生的工人pupeles拥有的大小频率分布一样，小，年轻的殖民地，而不是更大，更老的。因此，群体的大小比年龄更重要。
SummaryThe size-frequency distributions of workers were followed in A. cephalotes colonies from the beginning brood (collected in Costa Rica) through 4 years of growth in the laboratory to a worker population of up to 64,530. Workers in the founding groups had a nearly uniform distribution, with a range in head width of 0.8–1.6 mm (Figs. 1–3, Table 1). This range is the minimum required both to harvest fresh vegetation and cultivate the symbiotic fungus. Thus in founding the colony the queen produces close to the maximum mumber of individual workers that can collectively perform all of the essential tasks.By the time the worker population reaches approximately 500, the size-frequency distribution has begun to shift to the distinctively “adult” form seen in much larger colonies. Yet over a span of 3–4 years, encompassing the growth of the incipient colonies into the largest studied, the pattern of energy investment remains relatively little changed, with the maximum investment placed in the large minor to small media size classes of head width 1.0–1.6 mm, in other words the minimally essential size range (Figs. 2, 3).In spite of the large shifts in size-frequency distribution during the earliest stages of colony growth, only relatively minor shifts occur in division of labor (Table 2).The question was posed: which is more important in the ontogeny of the caste system, the size of the colony or its age? In order to provide an answer, I selected four colonies 3–4 years old and with about 10,000 workers and reduced the population of each to 236 workers, giving them a size-frequency distribution characteristic of natural young colonies of the same size. The worker pupae produced at the end of the first brood cycle possessed a size-frequency distribution like that of small, young colonies rather than larger, older ones. Thus colony size is more important than age.