Testing the importance of the distribution of worker sizes to colony performance in the ant species <Emphasis Type="Italic">Formica obscuripes</Emphasis> Forel |
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Authors: | I Billick C Carter |
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Institution: | (1) Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, PO Box 519, Crested Butte, CO, 81224, U.S.A. |
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Abstract: | We examined the relationship between colony performance and the distribution of worker sizes within colonies in the ant species,
Formica obscuripes. We manipulated the distribution of worker sizes within colonies and found that experimental colonies whose distributions
mimicked the natural distributions retained a larger percentage of colony biomass over three weeks when fed on honeydew, relative
to colonies composed of only large or only small workers. In natural colonies most of the variation in worker sizes was found
within, as opposed, to between colonies, suggesting that homeostatic mechanisms within colonies regulated the distribution
of worker sizes. While there were no disjunctions in the distribution of worker sizes within colonies, the distribution tended
to be bimodal. This study demonstrates that the distribution of worker sizes within colonies is important even for ant species
that lack discrete worker castes.
Received 31 October 2006; revised 26 December 2006; accepted 4 January 2007. |
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Keywords: | Ants caste distribution function worker size distribution eusociality |
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