Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-7810
Authors: Pamminger, Tobias
Foitzik, Susanne
Kaufmann, Katharina C.
Schützler, Natalie
Menzel, Florian
Title: Worker personality and its association with spatially structured division of labor
Online publication date: 4-Oct-2022
Year of first publication: 2014
Language: english
Abstract: Division of labor is a defining characteristic of social insects and fundamental to their ecological success. Many of the numerous tasks essential for the survival of the colony must be performed at a specific location. Consequently, spatial organization is an integral aspect of division of labor. The mechanisms organizing the spatial distribution of workers, separating inside and outside workers without central control, is an essential, but so far neglected aspect of division of labor. In this study, we investigate the behavioral mechanisms governing the spatial distribution of individual workers and its physiological underpinning in the ant Myrmica rubra. By investigating worker personalities we uncover position-associated behavioral syndromes. This context-independent and temporally stable set of correlated behaviors (positive association between movements and attraction towards light) could promote the basic separation between inside (brood tenders) and outside workers (foragers). These position-associated behavior syndromes are coupled with a high probability to perform tasks, located at the defined position, and a characteristic cuticular hydrocarbon profile. We discuss the potentially physiological causes for the observed behavioral syndromes and highlight how the study of animal personalities can provide new insights for the study of division of labor and self-organized processes in general.
DDC: 590 Tiere (Zoologie)
590 Zoological sciences
Institution: Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
Department: FB 02 Sozialwiss., Medien u. Sport
Place: Mainz
ROR: https://ror.org/023b0x485
DOI: http://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-7810
Version: Published version
Publication type: Zeitschriftenaufsatz
License: CC BY
Information on rights of use: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Journal: PLoS one
9
1
Pages or article number: e79616
Publisher: PLoS
Publisher place: Lawrence, Kan.
Issue date: 2014
ISSN: 1932-6203
Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0079616
Publisher DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0079616
Appears in collections:DFG-OA-Publizieren (2012 - 2017)

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