Social Insect Research Group & Friends

For Earth Month, Arizona State University did a piece on the Social Insect Research Group.

The mighty impact of insects | ASU News By Meghan Finnerty and Megan NeelyArizona State University has a lot of insects — and for good reason. A colony of researchers is studying how social insects can be used as tools to answer fundamental questions.

New cool research from Arizona State University researchers Christina Kwapich, Gabriele Valentini, and Bert Hoelldobler. In short:
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Researchers at Arizona State University discovered that ant colonies with a mix of large and small workers build better nests than colonies with only small or large workers. Mixed-size groups built longer nests, excavated more sand and produced more architecturally complex nests than single-size worker groups.
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Researchers represent ASU School of Life Sciences, School of Earth and Space Exploration at ASU, and Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science.

Primary source:
"The non-additive effects of body size on nest architecture in a polymorphic ant"
by Kwapich, Valentini, and Hoelldobler
Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. B (19 August 2008), 373(1753):20170235
http://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0235

Abstract
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Like traditional organisms, eusocial insect societies express traits that are the target of natural selection. Variation at the colony level emerges from the combined attributes of thousands of workers and may yield characteristics not predicted from individual phenotypes. By manipulating the ratios of worker types, the basis of complex, colony-level traits can be reduced to the additive and non-additive interactions of their component parts. In this study, we investigated the independent and synergistic effects of body size on nest architecture in a seasonally polymorphic harvester ant, Veromessor pergandei. Using network analysis, we compared wax casts of nests, and found that mixed-size groups built longer nests, excavated more sand and produced greater architectural complexity than single-sized worker groups. The nests built by polymorphic groups were not only larger in absolute terms, but larger than expected based on the combined contributions of both size classes in isolation. In effect, the interactions of different worker types yielded a colony-level trait that was not predicted from the sum of its parts. In nature, V. pergandei colonies with fewer fathers produce smaller workers each summer, and produce more workers annually. Because body size is linked to multiple colony-level traits, our findings demonstrate how selection acting on one characteristic, like mating frequency, could also shape unrelated characteristics, like nest architecture.
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Building a better ant castle

Nice to see Arizona State University publicizing work out of the Social Insect Research Group! Make sure to check out the video, where Christina goes over some basic natural history of these ants. There are photos explaining mark-and-recapture as well. Nice job, Christina Kwapich!

Digging into the harsh world of ants Imagine working for the harshest corporation in the world. Naturally, they want to maximize production and growth. This is done by investing in lots of low-wage employees. When production needs to be ramped up, more workers are brought on like holiday employees. When they get older, they’re sent out...

From SIRG's own Bob Johnson -- A revision of South American /Pogonomyrmex/ species, including documentation of lots of alternative reproductive strategies! Seed harvesters are even more interesting in South America.

mapress.com