DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Scaling of work in insect societies

论文研究：昆虫社会工作规模的扩大

• 批准号: 1011180
• 负责人: Jennifer Fewell
• 金额: $ 1.09万
• 依托单位: Arizona State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-07-01 至 2012-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1011180&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DISSERTATION; RESEARCH; Scaling; work; insect

One of the most significant traits of an animal is its body size, which has profound consequences for its structure, function, and ecology. Likewise, when animals form social groups, individual and group properties may change, or scale, in response to changes in group size. In highly social insects such as ants and bees, colony size varies tremendously, from just a few individuals up to thousands or even millions. Moreover, their colonies are so tightly integrated that they function like organisms, and may thus be subject to similar scaling relationships. This project will investigate how the organization and output of work performed by ant colonies scales with colony size. Ant colonies exhibit a division of labor in which different workers specialize on different tasks such as foraging and brood care. By manipulating colony size and measuring task performance, the researchers will test how colony size affects division of labor and other patterns of activity in the seed-harvester ant Pogonomyrmex californicus. Preliminary evidence suggests that as colony size increases, division of labor increases. The project will also analyze the scaling of brood production, the major form of work output in an ant colony and a key parameter in models of social insect life history and evolution. The results will provide insights into the organization, development, and evolution of insect societies and other social groups. Social insects are among the most abundant and ecologically successful animals on earth; they also serve economically important roles (e.g., as pollinators and pests) and are leading models for the study of social behavior and complexity. In addition, the project will provide training opportunities for a graduate student and undergraduate research assistants. The investigators will also engage in public outreach based on their research, including demonstrations to K-12 students and contributions to online educational resources.

动物最重要的特征之一是它的身体大小，这对它的结构，功能和生态有着深远的影响。 同样，当动物形成社会群体时，个体和群体属性可能会随着群体规模的变化而变化。 在高度社会化的昆虫中，如蚂蚁和蜜蜂，群体的大小变化很大，从几个个体到数千甚至数百万个体。 此外，它们的群落是如此紧密地结合在一起，以至于它们的功能就像有机体一样，因此可能会受到类似的缩放关系的影响。 这个项目将研究如何组织和蚁群执行的工作输出规模与殖民地的大小。 蚂蚁群体表现出劳动分工，不同的工人专门从事不同的任务，如觅食和育雏。 通过操纵蚁群大小和测量任务表现，研究人员将测试蚁群大小如何影响种子收获蚁Pogonomyrmex californicus的劳动分工和其他活动模式。 初步证据表明，随着殖民地规模的增加，劳动分工也在增加。 该项目还将分析育雏生产的规模，蚁群中工作输出的主要形式以及社会昆虫生活史和进化模型中的关键参数。 这些结果将为昆虫社会和其他社会群体的组织，发展和进化提供见解。 社会性昆虫是地球上最丰富和生态上最成功的动物之一;它们也扮演着重要的经济角色（例如，作为传粉者和害虫），是研究社会行为和复杂性的主要模型。 此外，该项目将为一名研究生和本科生研究助理提供培训机会。 调查人员还将根据他们的研究进行公共宣传，包括向K-12学生进行演示和为在线教育资源做出贡献。