Behavioral Physiology and Sociobiology, Biozentrum, Am Hubland, Universität Würzburg, Germany.
Curr Biol. 2009 Dec 1;19(22):1897-902. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2009.08.059. Epub 2009 Nov 12.
Colonies of social insects display an amazing degree of flexibility in dealing with long-term and short-term perturbations in their environment. The key organizational element of insect societies is division of labor. Recent literature suggests that interindividual variability in response thresholds plays an important role in the emergence of division of labor among workers (reviewed in [1, 2]). Genetic variation can only partly explain the variability among workers. Here we document the effects of both preimaginal and adult thermal experience on the behavioral differentiation of Camponotus rufipes ant workers. We show that preimaginal temperature (22 degrees C or 32 degrees C during pupal stage) affects temperature-response thresholds and temperature preferences of adult brood-tending workers. We further show that brood-carrying experience gathered as adult during several repeated temperature increases modifies thermal behavior. Experienced workers showed a faster transition from first sensing the temperature stimulus to responding with brood translocation. Developmental plasticity of workers provides a colony with flexibility in dealing with thermal variations and constitutes an important mechanism underlying interindividual variability. Adult thermal experience further fine tunes the behavioral response thresholds and reinforces behavioral differentiation among workers.
群居昆虫的群体在应对环境中长期和短期的干扰时表现出惊人的灵活性。昆虫社会的关键组织要素是劳动分工。最近的文献表明，个体间反应阈值的可变性在工蜂劳动分工的出现中起着重要作用（综述见[1,2]）。遗传变异只能部分解释工蜂之间的变异性。在这里，我们记录了预蛹期和成虫期热暴露对红足穴蚁工蚁行为分化的影响。我们表明，预蛹期温度（蛹期 22°C 或 32°C）影响成年育雏工蚁的温度反应阈值和温度偏好。我们进一步表明，作为成年蚁在多次重复升温过程中积累的育雏经验会改变其热行为。有经验的工蚁在首次感知到温度刺激到用幼虫转移做出反应的过程中，表现出更快的转变。工蚁的发育可塑性为蚁群提供了应对温度变化的灵活性，是个体间变异性的重要机制。成年期的热经验进一步微调了行为反应阈值，并加强了工蚁之间的行为分化。
