The queens in colonies of social bugs, similar to ants, bees, and wasps, are thought-about the veritable embodiment of specialization within the animal kingdom. The widespread notion is that the queen’s solely job is to put eggs — and that this attribute is an inherent trait, not influenced by exterior elements. In distinction, latest analysis undertaken at Johannes Gutenberg College Mainz (JGU) has demonstrated that in sure ant colonies the social atmosphere can play an important function in shaping the behavioral specialization of the queens. “With regard to the ant species we studied, it’s social elements that management whether or not queens turn out to be 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 performed by the Copy, Vitamin, and Habits in Insect Societies group at JGU below the supervision of Dr. Romain Libbrecht, an evolutionary biologist. The corresponding paper has lately been revealed in Practical Ecology. Dr. Romain Libbrecht at present 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 include queens that monopolize replica and sterile employees liable for all non-reproduction-related duties, such because the care of the brood, i.e., eggs and larvae. Libbrecht’s workforce now questioned this primary assumption. They targeted on ant species the place the queens discovered new colonies alone and with out the assistance of employees. “Curiously, these founding queens will not be but specialised when it comes to their conduct at this stage of their lives,” Libbrecht identified. “They themselves assume all duties within the nest, similar to brood care, to make sure profitable manufacturing of the primary era of employees.”
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 consider figuring out the behavioral specialization of founding queens. “The introduction of employees 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 employees, 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 in the course of the examine 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 employees 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 could reshape our understanding of the functioning of insect societies and their division of labor.
Romain Libbrecht was head of the Copy, Vitamin, and Habits 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 enthusiastic about analyzing how organisms alter their replica, physiology, and conduct in response to environmental situations.
