Abstract
In eusocial insects, particularly in ants, caste differentiation is extremely complicated when we rely on traditional taxonomy. In most species, the worker caste does not display any distinct morphological characters neither the caste’s central division according to their morphological size variations. We used a landmark-based geometric morphometric approach to quantify the morphological characteristics of female caste systems (queen, major and minor worker ant) of Oecophylla smaragdina. Our findings suggested that each caste has its unique shape and size. Especially in the worker caste, apart from the size variations, we can use the shape as a prominent tool for distinguishing between them. The O. smaragdina exhibits a triphasic allometry pattern. Studying the allometry and non-allometry components of each caste system revealed a highly complex size and shape relationship in the female caste systems. From the allometric and non-allometric analysis, we concluded that the major worker ants showed a closer relationship with the queen than the minor worker ant. This outcome demonstrated that Asian weaver ant exhibits complex shape variations related to size and is correlated to their functional modular characters. This research sheds new light on caste systems’ taxonomic uncertainties for eusocial hymenopteran groups, especially ants.
Highlights
The shape is an essential geometrical feature in biological systems
Fluctuating asymmetry (FA) is a principal area of interest because it was proved that mate selection and survival rates are affected by the FA of the individual and are closely related to the organism’s fitness (Scheib et al.,1999)
We address the following questions in this study: (1) Determining the size and shape difference between the female caste system of Asian weaver ant, in particular, in the worker caste are there differences in size only between the major and minor worker ants? Are there variations in shape? (2) Understanding the caste-specific size and shape relationship; (3) Analysing the allometric and non-allometric components of queen, major and minor worker caste
Summary
The shape is an essential geometrical feature in biological systems. It links genotype with the environment (Kendall, 1977; Bookstein, 1991; Dryden & Mardia, 1998), and it varies according to the size (Adams et al, 2013). Allometry is the statistical relationship between size and shape (Mosimann, 1970). Geometric morphometric analyses were used to study the phenotypic plasticity, asymmetry, and allometry of the structure under study (Klingenberg, 2015). Fluctuating asymmetry (FA) is a principal area of interest because it was proved that mate selection and survival rates are affected by the FA of the individual and are closely related to the organism’s fitness (Scheib et al.,1999)
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