Department of Entomology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA.
Biol Lett. 2012 Dec 23;8(6):1059-62. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2012.0463. Epub 2012 Aug 15.
Social insect societies dominate many terrestrial ecosystems across the planet. Colony members cooperate to capture and use resources to maximize survival and reproduction. Yet, when compared with solitary organisms, we understand relatively little about the factors responsible for differences in the rates of survival, growth and reproduction among colonies. To explain these differences, we present a mathematical model that predicts these three rates for ant colonies based on the body sizes and metabolic rates of colony members. Specifically, the model predicts that smaller colonies tend to use more energy per gram of biomass, live faster and die younger. Model predictions are supported with data from whole colonies for a diversity of species, with much of the variation in colony-level life history explained based on physiological traits of individual ants. The theory and data presented here provide a first step towards a more general theory of colony life history that applies across species and environments.
社会性昆虫的群体在全球范围内主导着许多陆地生态系统。群体成员通过合作来捕获和利用资源，以最大限度地提高生存和繁殖能力。然而，与独居生物相比，我们对于导致群体间生存率、生长率和繁殖率差异的因素了解甚少。为了解释这些差异，我们提出了一个数学模型，该模型基于群体成员的体型和代谢率，预测了蚂蚁群体的这三个速率。具体来说，该模型预测较小的群体往往每克生物量消耗更多的能量，生长速度更快，寿命更短。该模型的预测结果得到了来自多个物种的整个群体的数据的支持，并且基于个体蚂蚁的生理特征解释了群体水平的生活史中的大部分变异。本文提出的理论和数据为一个更普遍的适用于不同物种和环境的群体生活史理论提供了一个初步的框架。
