Social inhibition and the regulation of temporal polyethism in honey bees.

Autor: Beshers SN; Department of Entomology, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801, USA. beshers@life.uiuc.edu, Huang ZY, Oono Y, Robinson GE
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Journal of theoretical biology [J Theor Biol] 2001 Dec 07; Vol. 213 (3), pp. 461-79.
DOI: 10.1006/jtbi.2001.2427
Abstrakt: Honey bee division of labor is characterized by temporal polyethism, in which young workers remain in the hive and perform tasks there, whereas old workers perform more risky outside tasks, mainly foraging. We present a model of honey bee division of labor based on (1) an intrinsic process of behavioral development and (2) inhibition of development through social interactions among the workers in a colony. The model shows that these two processes can explain the main features of honey bee temporal polyethism: the correlation between age and task performance; the age at which a worker first forages and how this age varies among hives; the balanced allocation of workers to hive tasks and foraging; the recovery of a colony from demographic perturbations; and the differentiation of workers into different behavioral roles. The model provides a baseline picture of individual and colony behavior that can serve as the basis for studies of more fine-grained regulation of division of labor.
(Copyright 2001 Academic Press.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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