Journal
ECOLOGICAL ENTOMOLOGY
Volume 46, Issue 6, Pages 1373-1378Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/een.13075
Keywords
Invasive species; plasticity; social insects; variation
Categories
Funding
- Galician government (Axudas a etapa posdoutoral da Xunta de Galicia) [ED481B 2017/034]
- Fondation Fyssen
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The study found that in invasive ant species, only queens showed variability in behavioral plasticity among individuals, while workers did not. This behavioral variability in queens may help invasive ants adapt to changing environments and increase their ecological success.
1. The study of behavioural variability has a long research tradition in social insects. Because of their contribution to division of labour, between-individual variations have been mostly studied within the worker caste. In contrast, the level of behavioural variation between queens has been much less studied. 2. In ants, a high level of behavioural variability could contribute to the ecological success of invasive species by favouring the colonisation of new environments. 3. In the invasive ant species Linepithema humile (Mayr), we used a standardised test to assess plasticity and predictability in activity level between workers and queens. 4. We found that only queens, not workers, displayed between-individual variability in plasticity. 5. We propose that the behavioural variability of queens could be an asset favouring the adaptation of invasive ant species to changing environments.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available