Behavioral flexibility in Wasmannia auropunctata (Hymenoptera: Formicidae).

ABSTRACT: Worker division of labor is a defining trait in social insects. Many species are characterized by having behavioral flexibility where workers perform non-typical tasks for their age depending on the colony's needs. Worker division of labor and behavioral flexibility were examined in the little fire ant Wasmannia auropunctata (Roger, 1863), for which age-related division of labor has been found. Young workers perform nursing duties which include tending of brood and queens, and colony defense, while older workers forage. When nurses were experimentally removed from the colony, foragers were observed carrying out nursing and colony defense duties, yet when foragers were removed nurses did not forage precociously. We also administered juvenile hormone analog, methoprene, to workers. When meth

SUBMITTER: Ortiz-Alvarado Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8388608 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature