Ergonomics in the pheromone trail of Atta sexden rubropilosa

• Grant number: 13/15110-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: October 01, 2013
• End date: September 30, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Physiology
• Principal Investigator: Pedro Leite Ribeiro
• Grantee: Vitor Paiola de Oliveira
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Ants are eusocial organisms (present overlapping generations, cooperative care of offspring and reproductive division of labor) that live in colonies of many individuals. In the colony, most tasks are performed by the workers that have the challenge to coordinate their actions with each other. The ants of the genus Atta also have a complex system of division of labor based on morphological and behavioral factors. The pheromone trail is the main tool used by them for recruitment to the tasks of foraging, as the trail can contain various information about the activity to which it is associated. Recent findings have shown that the castes of workers have different capacities of perception of the pheromone trail, leading us to believe that this ability may be somehow related to recruitment strategies for pheromone. This study aims to investigate the possibility of pheromone trail contain information able to recruit more efficiently a specific caste of workers.