Body Size of Wood Ant Workers Affects their Work Division

Adam Véle,Roman Modlinger

doi:10.13102/sociobiology.v66i4.4596

Abstract

The division of functions among ant workers and their mutual cooperation is one of the reasons for ants’ success. The activities that workers perform in the nest can be divided by age or morphology. We studied the body size of workers of the wood ant Formica polyctena as a function of their activity. Our results show that workers exploiting protein baits were larger than workers attracted to carbohydrate baits. The biggest of all were workers located at the upper parts of the nest, which shows the importance of nest defense and maintenance. It also points that the distribution of functions does not have to be given only by workers age. Work division based on several mechanisms may be advantageous for colony functioning.

Highlights

The ants taxon is characterized by great variability in body size, which plays an important role for their survival (Bugrova, 2010; Bernadou et al, 2016; Bishop et al, 2016; Kramer et al, 2016; Wills et al, 2018)
We examine the question as to whether body size in workers of the F. polyctena is a determinant of the activities that they perform
The differences between the measured parameters according to work division were determined using one-way ANOVA nested within the nest

Summary

Introduction

The ants taxon is characterized by great variability in body size, which plays an important role for their survival (Bugrova, 2010; Bernadou et al, 2016; Bishop et al, 2016; Kramer et al, 2016; Wills et al, 2018). Significant differences in ant sizes exist between castes within a given nest. Each type of such workers performs different activities (Hölldobler & Wilson, 1990). Smaller differences in size can be found in workers of monomorphic species (Grześ et al, 2016).

Results

Conclusion