Tschinkel Walter R, Hanley Nicholas
Department of Biological Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2017 Nov 28;12(11):e0188630. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0188630. eCollection 2017.
In the Florida harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex badius, foragers occur only in the top 15 cm of the nest, whereas brood and brood-care workers reside mostly in the deepest regions, yet the food and seeds foragers collect must be transported downward 30 to 80 cm to seed chambers and up to 2 m to brood chambers. Using mark-recapture techniques with fluorescent printer's ink, we identified a class of workers that ranges widely within the vertical structure of the nest, rapidly moving materials dropped by foragers in the upper regions downward, and excavated soil from deeper upward. Within the nest, only 5% of foragers were recovered below 20 cm depth, but about 30% of transfer workers and 82% of unmarked workers were found there. Below 70 cm depth, 90% of workers were unmarked, and were probably involved mostly in brood care. During the summer, the transfer workers comprise about a quarter of the nest population, while foragers make up about 40%. Workers marked as transfer workers later appear as foragers, while those marked as foragers die and disappear from the foraging population, suggesting that transfer workers are younger, and age into foraging. The importance of these findings for laboratory studies of division of labor are discussed. The efficient allocation of labor is a key component of superorganismal fitness.
在佛罗里达收获蚁（Pogonomyrmex badius）中，觅食工蚁仅出现在蚁巢顶部15厘米范围内，而幼虫和照顾幼虫的工蚁大多栖息在最深的区域，然而觅食工蚁收集的食物和种子必须向下运输30至80厘米到种子室，向上运输可达2米到育雏室。我们使用荧光打印机墨水的标记重捕技术，识别出一类在蚁巢垂直结构中活动范围广泛的工蚁，它们迅速将上部区域觅食工蚁掉落的物资向下搬运，并将深层的土壤向上挖掘。在蚁巢内，只有5%的觅食工蚁在20厘米深度以下被发现，但约30%的搬运工蚁和82%的未标记工蚁在该深度以下被发现。在70厘米深度以下，90%的工蚁是未标记的，它们可能主要参与育雏工作。在夏季，搬运工蚁约占蚁巢群体的四分之一，而觅食工蚁约占40%。被标记为搬运工蚁的工蚁后来会成为觅食工蚁，而那些被标记为觅食工蚁的则会死亡并从觅食群体中消失，这表明搬运工蚁更年轻，并会成长为觅食工蚁。我们讨论了这些发现对分工实验室研究的重要性。劳动力的有效分配是超个体适应性的关键组成部分。
