Spatial fidelity of workers predicts collective response to disturbance in a social insect
Spatial fidelity of workers predicts collective response to disturbance in a social insect
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DOI：
10.1038/s41467-018-03561-w
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发表时间：
2018-04-03
影响因子：
16.6
通讯作者：
Combes, Stacey A.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Crall, James D.;Gravish, Nick;Combes, Stacey A.
群居昆虫群体中的个体合作完成集体工作。虽然蚁群经常通过灵活地将工蚁重新分配到不同的任务中来应对不断变化的环境条件，但决定哪些工蚁进行转换以及为什么进行转换的因素还没有得到很好的理解。在这里，我们使用一个自动跟踪系统，不断监测巢的行为和觅食活动的唯一确定的工人从整个大黄蜂（熊蜂凤仙花）殖民地觅食在自然的户外环境。我们发现，大多数觅食是由少数工人和积极调节觅食的强度和分布在殖民地的水平，以响应觅食删除。通过分析工蚁的巢行为之前和之后的觅食删除，我们表明，空间保真度的巢内的工人产生不均匀的相互作用与相关的本地化信息源，并预测哪些工人开始觅食后干扰。我们的研究结果强调了空间保真度的重要性，结构化的信息流和调节社会昆虫群体的集体行为。
Individuals in social insect colonies cooperate to perform collective work. While colonies often respond to changing environmental conditions by flexibly reallocating workers to different tasks, the factors determining which workers switch and why are not well understood. Here, we use an automated tracking system to continuously monitor nest behavior and foraging activity of uniquely identified workers from entire bumble bee (Bombus impatiens) colonies foraging in a natural outdoor environment. We show that most foraging is performed by a small number of workers and that the intensity and distribution of foraging is actively regulated at the colony level in response to forager removal. By analyzing worker nest behavior before and after forager removal, we show that spatial fidelity of workers within the nest generates uneven interaction with relevant localized information sources, and predicts which workers initiate foraging after disturbance. Our results highlight the importance of spatial fidelity for structuring information flow and regulating collective behavior in social insect colonies.