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The queens in colonies of social bugs, corresponding to ants, bees, and wasps, are thought of the veritable embodiment of specialization within the animal kingdom. The widespread notion is that the queen’s solely process is to put eggs — and that this attribute is an inherent trait, not influenced by exterior components. In distinction, current analysis undertaken at Johannes Gutenberg College Mainz (JGU) has demonstrated that in sure ant colonies the social atmosphere can play a vital position in shaping the behavioral specialization of the queens. “With regard to the ant species we studied, it’s social components that management whether or not queens turn into specialised or not. Our findings problem the broadly accepted notion of social insect queens as inherently specialised egg-laying machines,” acknowledged Dr. Romain Libbrecht.
The analysis was carried out by the Replica, Diet, and Conduct in Insect Societies group at JGU beneath the supervision of Dr. Romain Libbrecht, an evolutionary biologist. The corresponding paper has not too long ago been printed in Useful Ecology. Dr. Romain Libbrecht at the moment works on the Centre Nationwide de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) within the Insect Biology Analysis Institute of the College of Excursions.
Idea of insect societies as superorganisms consisting of specialised people
It’s usually assumed that social insect colonies encompass queens that monopolize copy and sterile staff chargeable for all non-reproduction-related duties, such because the care of the brood, i.e., eggs and larvae. Libbrecht’s crew now questioned this fundamental assumption. They targeted on ant species the place the queens discovered new colonies alone and with out the assistance of staff. “Curiously, these founding queens will not be but specialised by way of their conduct at this stage of their lives,” Libbrecht identified. “They themselves assume all duties within the nest, corresponding to brood care, to make sure profitable manufacturing of the primary era of staff.”
Of their experiments, Libbrecht’s group studied the black backyard ant Lasius niger that’s native to Germany. They discovered the social atmosphere to be a core think about figuring out the behavioral specialization of founding queens. “The introduction of staff within the nests of founding queens suppressed the pure predisposition of the queens to take care of their brood themselves. And, conversely, after we remoted queens specialised in egg-laying from their staff, they quickly reverted to the brood care conduct noticed within the case of founding queens, even after a few years of specialization.”
Revision of the accepted view of the division of labor in insect societies
Libbrecht emphasised that the conduct noticed throughout the research challenges the normal view of social insect queens as being intrinsically specialised in egg manufacturing. As a substitute, the findings exhibit that the presence of staff not solely triggers the egg-laying specialization of queens but additionally actively maintains it in established colonies. The invention of such social management of queen specialization might reshape our understanding of the functioning of insect societies and their division of labor.
Romain Libbrecht was head of the Replica, Diet, and Conduct in Insect Societies group on the Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolution (IOME) at Johannes Gutenberg College Mainz from 2016 to 2022. Since 2023, he has been a researcher on the Insect Biology Analysis Institute on the CNRS of the College of Excursions. He’s significantly excited about inspecting how organisms alter their copy, physiology, and conduct in response to environmental circumstances.
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