DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Plastic Worker lifespan and the influence of demand, demography and death on labor economics in the Florida harvester ant (Pogonomyrmex badius)

论文研究：塑料工人的寿命以及需求、人口统计和死亡对佛罗里达收获蚁 (Pogonomyrmex badius) 劳动经济学的影响

• 批准号: 1311473
• 负责人: Walter Tschinkel
• 金额: $ 1.46万
• 依托单位: Florida State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-09-15 至 2015-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1311473&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DISSERTATION; RESEARCH; Plastic; Worker; lifespan

Although a social insect colony may persist for decades, the sterile workers within it may live only a fraction of a year. Much like cells in a body, the rate at which workers in a colony senesce should trace the lifespan imposed on them by their environment. If the death rate in their environment is high, selection for inexpensive, short-lived, "disposable" workers is predicted. In workers of the Florida harvester ant (Pogonomyrmex badius), a 5-fold difference in the rate of cuticle darkening, age at first foraging and lifespan occurs seasonally. When removed from field mortality factors, longevity in both types of workers increases greatly, indicating that an individual's potential lifespan is much greater than its realized lifespan. In social insects, differences in larval nutrition often yield adults of different size and correlated characteristics, but in adults of identical body size (as in P. badius), factors influencing longevity are less clear. This study will investigate how development rate and longevity are influenced by colony production of workers with two distinct lifespans and behavioral trajectories. To do so, feeding profile, metabolic rate, fat content and queen investment will be compared for short-lived summer workers and long-lived autumn workers in normal and reciprocal environmental conditions. These findings will help untangle how division of labor is related to developmental-age in social insects, and how selection has shaped labor allocation by acting on worker development rate. These findings will help illuminate lifespan plasticity and regulation of aging across biological hierarchies. It may also challenge the perception of foragers in social insects as physiologically depleted and disposable. By engaging students of all ages in meaningful work in a local ecosystem, this project will also support public understanding of science and increase awareness of the unique and charming inhabitants of the Apalachicola National Forest. The data from this study will be stored electronically at The Florida State University in Tallahassee Florida, and will be available upon request.

虽然一个群居的昆虫群体可以生存几十年，但其中不育的工蜂可能只活不到一年。就像身体中的细胞一样，蜂群中工蜂衰老的速度应该与环境施加给它们的寿命有关。如果它们所处环境的死亡率很高，就会选择价格低廉、寿命短、“一次性”的工人。在佛罗里达收获蚁（Pogonomyrmex badius）的工蚁中，角质层变黑率、首次觅食年龄和寿命的差异是季节性的5倍。如果不考虑现场死亡因素，这两种工人的寿命都大大增加，这表明个人的潜在寿命远远大于其实际寿命。在群居昆虫中，幼虫营养的差异通常会产生不同大小和相关特征的成虫，但在相同体型的成虫中（如P. badius），影响寿命的因素就不太清楚了。本研究将探讨具有两种不同寿命和行为轨迹的工蚁群体生产对其发育速度和寿命的影响。为此，在正常和互惠环境条件下，比较短寿夏工蜂和长寿秋工蜂的摄食特征、代谢率、脂肪含量和蜂王投入。这些发现将有助于解开社会性昆虫的劳动分工与发育年龄之间的关系，以及选择如何通过作用于工人的发育速度来塑造劳动分配。这些发现将有助于阐明跨生物层次的寿命可塑性和衰老调节。这也可能挑战社会性昆虫的觅食者在生理上被耗尽和被抛弃的观念。通过让所有年龄段的学生在当地生态系统中从事有意义的工作，该项目还将支持公众对科学的理解，并提高对阿巴拉契科拉国家森林独特而迷人的居民的认识。本研究的数据将以电子方式存储在佛罗里达州塔拉哈西的佛罗里达州立大学，并可根据要求提供。