Santana Vieira Alexsandro, Desidério Fernandes Wedson, Fernando Antonialli-Junior William
Acta Ethol. 2010 May;13(1):23-31. doi: 10.1007/s10211-010-0069-2. Epub 2010 May 4.
We investigated the changes in the behavioral repertoire over the course of life and determined the life expectancy and entropy of workers of the ant Ectatomma vizottoi. Newly emerged ants were individually marked with model airplane paint for observation of behaviors and determination of the age and life expectancy. Ants were divided into two groups: young and old workers. The 36 behaviors observed were divided into eight categories. Workers exhibit a clear division of tasks throughout their lives, with young workers performing more tasks inside the colony and old workers, outside, unlike species that have small colonies. This species also exhibits an intermediate life expectancy compared to workers of other species that are also intermediary in size. This supports the hypothesis of a relationship between size and maximum life expectancy, but it also suggests that other factors may also be acting in concert. Entropy value shows a high mortality rate during the first life intervals.
我们研究了蚂蚁Ectatomma vizottoi工蚁一生中行为模式的变化，并确定了其预期寿命和熵值。新羽化的蚂蚁用模型飞机漆进行个体标记，以便观察行为并确定年龄和预期寿命。蚂蚁被分为两组：年轻工蚁和老年工蚁。观察到的36种行为被分为八类。与小型蚁群的物种不同，该物种的工蚁一生都表现出明确的任务分工，年轻工蚁在蚁巢内执行更多任务，老年工蚁则在蚁巢外执行任务。与体型也处于中等大小的其他物种的工蚁相比，该物种的预期寿命也处于中等水平。这支持了体型与最大预期寿命之间存在关系的假设，但也表明其他因素可能也在共同起作用。熵值显示在生命的最初阶段死亡率很高。
