Social regulation of behavioral development in the ant, Novomessor albisetosus (Mayr).

Abstract

Examined the processes influencing behavioral development in the arid-land ant Mayr, of the southwestern US, in 5 experiments in which colonies housed in Lucite housing apparatuses were subjected to age-group and brood-composition manipulation. A worker is considered mature when it spends more than half of its time outside the nest and no longer tends either the brood or queen. When the oldest workers and remaining age-groups were removed, recently eclosed callows (young, lightly pigmented workers) matured, that is, developed behaviorally, in one-third of the baseline time. When all age-groups were removed except the oldest, these outside workers reverted to tending the brood and queen inside the nest, although they had not been observed touching either for 4–6 mo. Callows in contact with the queen alone were rarely stimulated to leave the nest; both chemotactile and olfactory contact with larvae elicited some foraging and increased the time spent outside by callows. Stimulation from recently eclosed callows elicited considerable foraging response from callows that had eclosed several days earlier. It is hypothesized that stimulation from eclosing callows accelerates the process of behavioral development characteristic of the species and that stimulation from larvae stabilizes the gains made during this acceleration into mature adult behavior. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)