Polyethism in Insect Colonies

这个项目将调查动物协会成员之间的侵略性(优势)互动如何影响群体层面的协调。群居黄蜂是这项工作的理想对象，因为它们的群体很复杂，而且人们可以很容易地实验性地操纵它们的社会结构。O‘Donnell博士将评估生理和遗传背景的差异如何导致工人之间优势地位的个体差异，并管理优势地位的发展。此外，他还将试验性地改变群体条件，并评估优势在维持群体层面高效任务表现方面的作用。由数百个或更多相互作用的个体组成的动物协会可能是自组织的实体。这个社会的劳动力是无等级结构的，员工依赖于与其他员工的沟通来调节他们的任务绩效决策。这项拟议的研究将加强我们对复杂动物社会中劳动分工规则的理解。此外，这项研究将对如何在大型、分散的社会群体中实现社会协调提供一般性的见解。对社会支配地位的拟议研究将在最近发现的对个人行为的生理和遗传限制的基础上，通过检查个人的行为可能整合到一个正常运作的群体的方式来扩展。

This project will investigate how aggressive (dominance) interactions among animal society members can influence coordination at the group level. Social wasps are ideal subjects for this work, given their complex colonies and the ease with which one can experimentally manipulate their social structure. Dr. O'Donnell will assess how variation in physiology and genetic background lead to individual differences in dominance status among workers, and govern the development of dominance. In addition he will experimentally alter colony conditions, and assess the role of dominance in maintaining efficient task performance at the colony level. Animal societies of hundreds or more interacting individuals may be self-organizing entities. The society's labor force is non-hierarchically structured, and workers rely on communication with other workers to regulate their task-performance decisions. The proposed research will enhance our understanding of the regulation of division of labor in a well-studied, complex animal society. Furthermore, this research will yield general insight into how social coordination may be achieved in large, decentralized social groups. The proposed studies of social dominance will expand upon recent findings of physiological and genetic constraints on individual behavior, by examining the ways in which an individuals' behavior may be integrated into a functioning colony.