Abstract
In social insects, division of labour allows colonies to optimise the allocation of workers across all available tasks to satisfy colony requirements. The maintenance of stable conditions within colonies (homeostasis) requires that some individuals move inside the nest to monitor colony needs and execute unattended tasks. We developed a simple theoretical model to explore how worker mobility inside the nest and task switching costs influence the maintenance of stable levels of task-associated stimuli. Our results indicate that worker mobility in large colonies generates important task switching costs and is detrimental to colony homeostasis. Our study suggests that the balance between benefits and costs associated with the mobility of workers patrolling inside the nest depends on colony size. We propose that several species of ants with diverse life-history traits should be appropriate to test the prediction that the proportion of mobile workers should vary during colony ontogeny.
References
Beshers SN, Fewell JH (2001) Models of division of labor in social insects. Annu Rev Entomol 46:413–440
Bonabeau E, Theraulaz G, Deneubourg J-L (1996) Quantitative study of the fixed threshold model for the regulation of division of labour in insect societies. Proc R Soc Lond B 263:1565–1569
Cerdá X, Retana J (1992) A behavioural study of transporter workers in Cataglyphis iberica ant colonies (Hymenoptera Formicidae). Ethol Ecol Evol 4:359–374
Charbonneau D, Hillis N, Dornhaus A (2015) ‘Lazy’ in nature: ant colony time budgets show high ‘inactivity’ in the field as well as in the lab. Insect Soc 62:31–35
Chittka L, Muller H (2009) Learning, specialization, efficiency and task allocation in social insects. Commun Integr Biol 2:151–154
Depickère S, Fresneau D, Deneubourg J-L (2004) A basis for spatial and social patterns in ant species: dynamics and mechanisms of aggregation. J Insect Behav 17:81–97
Franks NR, Deneubourg J-L (1997) Self-organizing nest construction in ants: individual worker behaviour and the nest’s dynamics. Anim Behav 54:779–796
Franks NR, Wilby A, Silverman BW, Tofts C (1992) Self-organizing nest construction in ants: sophisticated building by blind bulldozing. Anim Behav 44:357–375
Fresneau D, Corbara B, Lachaud J-P (1989) Organisation sociale et structuration spatiale autour du couvain chez Pachycondyla apicalis (Formicidae, Ponerinae). Actes Coll Insect Soc 5:83–92
Jeanne RL (1986) The evolution of the organization of work in social insects. Monit Zool Ital 20:119–133
Jeanson R (2012) Long-term dynamics in proximity networks in ants. Anim Behav 83:915–923
Jeanson R, Weidenmüller A (2014) Interindividual variability in social insects—proximate causes and ultimate consequences. Biol Rev 89:671–687
Jeanson R, Kukuk PF, Fewell JH (2005) Emergence of division of labour in halictine bees: contributions of social interactions and behavioural variance. Anim Behav 70:1183–1193
Jeanson R, Fewell JH, Gorelick R, Bertram SM (2007) Emergence of increased division of labor as a function of group size. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 62:289–298
Lachaud J-P, Fresneau D (1987) Social regulation in ponerine ants. In: Pasteels JM, Deneubourg J-L (eds) From Individual to Collective Behavior in Social Insects. Birkhäuser, Basel, (Experientia Suppl 54) pp 197–217
Mersch DP, Crespi A, Keller L (2013) Tracking individuals shows spatial fidelity is a key regulator of ant social organization. Science 340:1090–1093
Mirenda JT, Vinson SB (1981) Division of labour and specification of castes in the red imported fire ant Solenopsis invicta Buren. Anim Behav 29:410–420
Tschinkel WR (1999) Sociometry and sociogenesis of colonies of the harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex badius: distribution of workers, brood and seeds within the nest in relation to colony size and season. Ecol Entomol 24:222–237
Tschinkel WR (2005) The nest architecture of the ant, Camponotus socius. J Insect Sci 5:9
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by: Sven Thatje
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jeanson, R., Lachaud, JP. Influence of task switching costs on colony homeostasis. Sci Nat 102, 36 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-015-1287-2
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-015-1287-2