| Texto completo | |
| Autor(es): |
Hammel, Benedikt
[1, 2]
;
Vollet-Neto, Ayrton
[1]
;
Menezes, Cristiano
[3]
;
Nascimento, Fabio S.
[1]
;
Engels, Wolf
[1, 2]
;
Grueter, Christoph
[4, 1]
Número total de Autores: 6
|
| Afiliação do(s) autor(es): | [1] Univ Sao Paulo, Dept Biol, Fac Filosofia Ciencias & Letras Ribeirao Preto, BR-14040901 Ribeirao Preto, SP - Brazil
[2] Univ Tubingen, Inst Evolut & Ecol, D-72076 Tubingen - Germany
[3] Embrapa Amazonia Oriental, BR-66017970 Belem, Para - Brazil
[4] Univ Lausanne, Dept Ecol & Evolut, Biophore, CH-1015 Lausanne - Switzerland
Número total de Afiliações: 4
|
| Tipo de documento: | Artigo Científico |
| Fonte: | American Naturalist; v. 187, n. 1, p. 120-129, JAN 2016. |
| Citações Web of Science: | 11 |
| Resumo | |
The differentiation of workers into morphological subcastes (e.g., soldiers) represents an important evolutionary transition and is thought to improve division of labor in social insects. Soldiers occur in many ant and termite species, where they make up a small proportion of the workforce. A common assumption of worker caste evolution is that soldiers are behavioral specialists. Here, we report the first test of the ``rare specialist{''} hypothesis in a eusocial bee. Colonies of the stingless bee Tetragonisca angustula are defended by a small group of morphologically differentiated soldiers. Contrary to the rare specialist hypothesis, we found that soldiers worked more (+34%-41%) and performed a greater variety of tasks (+23%-34%) than other workers, particularly early in life. Our results suggest a ``rare elite{''} function of soldiers in T. angustula, that is, that they perform a disproportionately large amount of the work. Division of labor was based on a combination of temporal and physical castes, but soldiers transitioned faster from one task to the next. We discuss why the rare specialist assumption might not hold in species with a moderate degree of worker differentiation. (AU) | |
| Processo FAPESP: | 12/11144-0 - Evolução dos sistemas de acasalamento em abelhas sem ferrão (Apidae, Meliponini) |
| Beneficiário: | Ayrton Vollet Neto |
| Modalidade de apoio: | Bolsas no Brasil - Doutorado |
| Processo FAPESP: | 10/10027-5 - Mediação comportamental, sinalização química e aspectos fisiológicos reguladores da organização social em himenópteros |
| Beneficiário: | Fábio Santos do Nascimento |
| Modalidade de apoio: | Auxílio à Pesquisa - Jovens Pesquisadores |