Okrutniak Mateusz, Rom Bartosz, Turza Filip, Grześ Irena M
Department of Zoology and Animal Welfare, University of Agriculture in Krakow, al. Mickiewicza 24/28, 30-059 Kraków, Poland.
Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jagiellonian University, ul. Gronostajowa 7, 30-387 Kraków, Poland.
Insects. 2020 Jul 10;11(7):433. doi: 10.3390/insects11070433.
The association between the division of labour and worker body size of ants is typical for species that maintain physical castes. Some studies showed that this phenomenon can be also observed in the absence of distinct morphological subcastes among workers. However, the general and consistent patterns in the size-based division of labour in monomorphic ants are largely unidentified. In this study, we performed a field experiment to investigate the link between worker body size and the division of labour of the ant (Linnaeus, 1758), which displays limited worker size variation. We demonstrated that the body size of workers exploring tuna baits is slightly but significantly smaller than the size of workers located in the upper parts of the nest. Comparing the present results with existing studies, large workers do not seem to be dedicated to work outside the nest. We suggest that monomorphic workers of certain body sizes are flexible in the choice of task they perform, and food type may be the important determinant of this choice.
分工与蚂蚁工蚁体型之间的关联在维持身体品级的物种中很典型。一些研究表明，在工蚁中不存在明显形态亚品级的情况下也能观察到这种现象。然而，单型蚂蚁基于体型的分工中普遍且一致的模式在很大程度上尚未明确。在本研究中，我们进行了一项野外实验，以调查工蚁体型与（林奈，1758年）蚂蚁分工之间的联系，该蚂蚁的工蚁体型变化有限。我们证明，探索金枪鱼诱饵的工蚁体型略小于但显著小于位于巢穴上部的工蚁体型。将目前的结果与现有研究进行比较，大型工蚁似乎并不专门负责巢穴外的工作。我们认为，特定体型的单型工蚁在执行任务的选择上具有灵活性，食物类型可能是这种选择的重要决定因素。
