The effects of disturbance threat on leaf-cutting ant colonies: a laboratory study.

ABSTRACT: The flexibility of organisms to respond plastically to their environment is fundamental to their fitness and evolutionary success. Social insects provide some of the most impressive examples of plasticity, with individuals exhibiting behavioral and sometimes morphological adaptations for their specific roles in the colony, such as large soldiers for nest defense. However, with the exception of the honey bee model organism, there has been little investigation of the nature and effects of environmental stimuli thought to instigate alternative phenotypes in social insects. Here, we investigate the effect of repeated threat disturbance over a prolonged (17 month) period on both behavioral and morphological phenotypes, using phenotypically plastic leaf-cutting ants (Atta colombica) as a

SUBMITTER: Norman VC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5310565 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature