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

虽然一个群居的昆虫群体可以持续几十年，但其中不育的工蜂可能只能活不到一年。就像身体中的细胞一样，群体中的工人衰老的速度应该追踪环境强加给他们的寿命。如果在他们的环境中死亡率很高，选择廉价，寿命短，“一次性”工人是预测。在工人的佛罗里达收获蚁（Pogonomyrmex badius），角质层变暗的速度，年龄在第一次觅食和寿命的5倍的差异发生季节性。当排除现场死亡率因素时，这两种类型工人的寿命都大大增加，这表明个人的潜在寿命比其实际寿命要大得多。在社会性昆虫中，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），影响寿命的因素不太清楚。本研究将探讨具有两种不同寿命和行为轨迹的工人的群体生产如何影响发育速度和寿命。为此，将在正常和互惠的环境条件下比较短寿命的夏季工蜂和长寿命的秋季工蜂的摄食概况、代谢率、脂肪含量和蜂王投资。这些发现将有助于解开劳动分工是如何与社会昆虫的发育年龄，以及选择如何通过作用于工人的发展速度来塑造劳动力分配。这些发现将有助于阐明寿命可塑性和跨生物层次的衰老调节。这也可能挑战社会昆虫中觅食者在生理上耗尽和一次性的看法。 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保存在佛罗里达塔拉哈西的佛罗里达州立大学，并可根据要求提供。

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.