scholarly journals Worker-behavior and behavior-behavior interaction networks in the trap-jaw ant Odontomachus chelifer (Latreille, 1802)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felipe Marcel Neves ◽  
Marcelo Eduardo Borges ◽  
Marcio R. Pie
Keyword(s):  
Division Of Labor ◽  
Social Insects ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Behavioral Repertoire ◽  
Network Applications ◽  
Network Topologies ◽  
Ecological Success ◽  
Organizational Patterns ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Odontomachus Chelifer

AbstractDivision of labor is among the main factors to explain the evolutionary success of social systems, from the origins of multicellularity to complex animal societies. The remarkable ecological success of social insects seems to have been largely driven by ergonomic advantages stemming from the behavioral specialization of workers. However, little is known about how individuals and their correspondent behavioral repertoire are related to each other within a division of labor context, as this relationship can be viewed as a complex network. Applications of network theory in the study of social insects are almost exclusively used to analyze behavioral interactions between individuals, rather than to the study of relations among individuals and behaviors. Here, we use a new approach to the study of the organization of the behavioral repertoire of ant colonies, which consider both individual-task interactions and task-task interactions, besides colony time budgets. Our study investigates for the first time the organization of division of labor in colonies of the trap-jaw ant Odontomachus chelifer (Latreille 1802). Data from all the behavioral acts (including inactivity) performed within three queenright colonies of different sizes (n = 7, 30, and 60 workers) were studied under controlled laboratory conditions. Each ant within the colonies was individually marked and observed by scan sampling in 10 min intervals for 10 h each (n = 5820 behavioral acts). We describe the network topologies in terms of centrality, specialization, modularity, and nestedness. This study shows that workers of O. chelifer interact in structured networks composed of specialists and generalists with consistent organization, even across colonies of different sizes. Our results underscore the potential of the use of complex networks in order to discover and study novel organizational patterns of social groups in animal behavior.

scholarly journals Stochastic spatial model for the division of labor in social insects

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (01) ◽  
pp. 45-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alesandro Arcuri ◽  
Nicolas Lanchier
Keyword(s):  
Communication Network ◽  
Division Of Labor ◽  
Social Insects ◽  
Spatial Model ◽  
Interacting Particle Systems ◽  
Particle Systems ◽  
The Other ◽  
Interacting Particle ◽  
Vertex Set ◽  
The Cost

Motivated by the study of social insects, we introduce a stochastic model based on interacting particle systems in order to understand the effect of communication on the division of labor. Members of the colony are located on the vertex set of a graph representing a communication network. They are characterized by one of two possible tasks, which they update at a rate equal to the cost of the task they are performing by either defecting by switching to the other task or cooperating by anti-imitating a random neighbor in order to balance the amount of energy spent in each task. We prove that, at least when the probability of defection is small, the division of labor is poor when there is no communication, better when the communication network consists of a complete graph, but optimal on bipartite graphs with bipartite sets of equal size, even when both tasks have very different costs. This shows a non-monotonic relationship between the number of connections in the communication network and how well individuals organize themselves to accomplish both tasks equally.

Self-media as a model for monetization of knowledge code

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 86-91
Author(s):  
Svetlana L. Urazova
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Historical Texts ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Masses ◽  
And Behavior

The accelerated development, convergence and integration of information and communication technologies open up great opportunities for social actors to express themselves, motivating amateur artists to produce media products. The essay discusses the principles of the functioning of "self-media", a new type of media model in individual entrepreneurship which is developing in China and analyzes its advantages and disadvantages in the testing of innovative business models. The essay explores the problem of the importance of screen communications for civilizational development and their possible influence on the processes of collective cognition, mentality and behavior patterns of social actors, groups, communities and cultures. Screen communications demonstrate the inextricability of the linking of the media and social systems which undergo fluctuations (unstable fluctuations) in digital time at the stage of digital reforming. The author notes that this development of a social system is most often built not on collectively-consolidated but on individualized solutions resorted to by people forced to rely on their own choices in difficult situations, on their intuition and imagination. Social actors master digital technologies and create various kinds of projects that encourage the masses to acquire new knowledge. The self-media project began to be implemented in China in 2010-2013 on the basis of the new WeChat platform, both a social network and a messaging application. In a convergent-integration form, a functional of differing target technology platforms was implemented, providing typological signs of self-media. This attracted a large number of consumers to media projects. Self-media are based on the idea of learning new things - in other words, a knowledge code (a set of signs / symbols and a system of certain rules that define a process of cognition) which is implemented by the creators. Initially, it is presented in the form of informative and historical texts, illustrations and videos dedicated to art, a chosen topic complemented by the attributes of material symbolic things and various kinds of organizational services. Materially embodied ideas motivate the media consumer to replenish knowledge of the unknown.

Intuitive network applications: Learning user context and behavior

2008 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 31-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nilton Bila ◽  
Jin Cao ◽  
Robert Dinoff ◽  
Tin Kam Ho ◽  
Bharat Kumar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Network Applications ◽  
User Context ◽  
And Behavior

The economic origins of ultrasociality

2015 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Gowdy ◽  
Lisi Krall
Keyword(s):  
Division Of Labor ◽  
Social Insects ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Active Management ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Resource Exploitation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Species Groups ◽  
City States

AbstractUltrasociality refers to the social organization of a few species, including humans and some social insects, having a complex division of labor, city-states, and an almost exclusive dependence on agriculture for subsistence. We argue that the driving forces in the evolution of these ultrasocial societies were economic. With the agricultural transition, species could directly produce their own food and this was such a competitive advantage that those species now dominate the planet. Once underway, this transition was propelled by the selection of within-species groups that could best capture the advantages of (1) actively managing the inputs to food production, (2) a more complex division of labor, and (3) increasing returns to larger scale and larger group size. Together these factors reoriented productive life and radically altered the structure of these societies. Once agriculture began, populations expanded as these economic drivers opened up new opportunities for the exploitation of resources and the active management of inputs to food production. With intensified group-level competition, larger populations and intensive resource exploitation became competitive advantages, and the “social conquest of Earth” was underway. Ultrasocial species came to dominate the earth's ecosystems. Ultrasociality also brought a loss of autonomy for individuals within the group. We argue that exploring the common causes and consequences of ultrasociality in humans and the social insects that adopted agriculture can provide fruitful insights into the evolution of complex human society.

scholarly journals Modular genetic control of social status in a cichlid fish

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beau A. Alward ◽  
Vibhav Laud ◽  
Christopher J. Skalnik ◽  
Ryan A. York ◽  
Scott Juntti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Androgen Receptor ◽  
Social Status ◽  
Gene Editing ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Cichlid Fish ◽  
Social Hierarchies ◽  
African Cichlid ◽  
Astatotilapia Burtoni ◽  
And Behavior

AbstractSocial hierarchies are ubiquitous in social species and profoundly influence physiology and behavior. Androgens like testosterone have been strongly linked to social status, yet the molecular mechanisms regulating social status are not known. The African cichlid fish Astatotilapia burtoni is a powerful model species for elucidating the role of androgens in social status given their rich social hierarchy and genetic tractability. Dominant A. burtoni males possess large testes, bright coloration, and perform aggressive and reproductive behaviors while non-dominant males do not. Social status in A. burtoni is in flux, however, as males alter their status depending on the social environment. Due to a teleost-specific whole-genome duplication, A. burtoni possess two androgen receptor (AR) paralogs, ARα and ARβ, providing a unique opportunity to disentangle the role of gene duplication in the evolution of social systems. Here, we used CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing to generate AR mutant A. burtoni and performed a suite of experiments to interrogate the mechanistic basis of social dominance. We find that ARβ, but not ARα, is required for testes growth and bright coloration, while ARα, but not ARβ, is required for the performance of reproductive behavior and aggressive displays. Both receptors are required to reduce flees from females and either AR is sufficient for attacking males. Thus, social status in A. burtoni is inordinately dissociable and under the modular control of two AR paralogs. This type of non-redundancy may be important in facilitating social plasticity in A. burtoni and other species whose social status relies on social experience.Significance StatementSocial rank along a hierarchy determines physiological state and behavioral performance. A ubiquitous feature of social hierarchies is the communication of rank through non-physical signaling systems (e.g., coloration) and aggression, traits that correlate with the reproductive status of an individual. Despite the links identified between social status, physiology, and behavior, the molecular basis of social status is not known. Here, we genetically dissect social status in the African cichlid fish Astatotilapia burtoni using CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing. We show that two distinct androgen receptor (AR) genes control social status in a highly modular manner. This type of coordination of social status may be fundamental across species that rely on social information to optimally guide physiology and behavior.

scholarly journals Emergent behavioral organization in heterogeneous groups of a social insect

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuko Ulrich ◽  
Mari Kawakatsu ◽  
Christopher K. Tokita ◽  
Jonathan Saragosti ◽  
Vikram Chandra ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Insects ◽  
Collective Behavior ◽  
Social Insect ◽  
Group Composition ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Foraging Efficiency ◽  
Behavioral Organization ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Mixed Groups

AbstractThe composition of social groups has profound effects on their function, from collective decision-making to foraging efficiency. But few social systems afford sufficient control over group composition to precisely quantify its effects on individual and collective behavior. Here we combine experimental and theoretical approaches to study the effect of group composition on individual behavior and division of labor (DOL) in a social insect. Experimentally, we use automated behavioral tracking to monitor 120 colonies of the clonal raider ant, Ooceraea biroi, with controlled variation in three key correlates of social insect behavior: genotype, age, and morphology. We find that each of these sources of heterogeneity generates a distinct pattern of behavioral organization, including the amplification or dampening of inherent behavioral differences in colonies with mixed types. Theoretically, we use a well-studied model of DOL to explore potential mechanisms underlying the experimental findings. We find that the simplest implementation of this model, which assumes that heterogeneous individuals differ only in response thresholds, could only partially recapitulate the empirically observed patterns of behavior. However, the full spectrum of observed phenomena was recapitulated by extending the model to incorporate two factors that are biologically meaningful but theoretically rarely considered: variation among workers in task performance efficiency and among larvae in task demand. Our results thus show that different sources of heterogeneity within social groups can generate different, sometimes non-intuitive, behavioral effects, but that relatively simple models can capture these dynamics and thereby begin to elucidate the basic organizational principles of DOL in social insects.Significance StatementWhen individuals interact in an aggregate, many factors that are not known a priori affect group dynamics. A social group will therefore show emergent properties that cannot easily be predicted from how its members behave in isolation. This problem is exacerbated in mixed groups, where different individuals have different behavioral tendencies. Here we describe different facets of collective behavioral organization in mixed groups of the clonal raider ant, and show that a simple theoretical model can capture even non-intuitive aspects of the behavioral data. These results begin to reveal the principles underlying emergent behavioral organization in social insects. Importantly, our insights might apply to complex biological systems more generally and be used to help engineer collective behavior in artificial systems.

scholarly journals Measuring the repertoire of age-related behavioral changes in Drosophila melanogaster

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine E. Overman ◽  
Daniel M. Choi ◽  
Kawai Leung ◽  
Joshua W. Shaevitz ◽  
Gordon J. Berman
Keyword(s):  
Drosophila Melanogaster ◽  
Energy Budget ◽  
Behavioral Changes ◽  
Sexually Dimorphic ◽  
Behavioral Repertoire ◽  
Biological Mechanisms ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Almost All ◽  
And Behavior

Aging affects almost all aspects of an organism – its morphology, its physiology, its behavior. Isolating which biological mechanisms are regulating these changes, however, has proven difficult, potentially due to our inability to characterize the full repertoire of an animal’s behavior across the lifespan. Using data from fruit flies (D. melanogaster) we measure the full repertoire of behaviors as a function of age. We observe a sexually dimorphic pattern of changes in the behavioral repertoire during aging. Although the stereotypy of the behaviors and the complexity of the repertoire overall remains relatively unchanged, we find evidence that the observed alterations in behavior can be explained by changing the fly’s overall energy budget, suggesting potential connections between metabolism, aging, and behavior.

scholarly journals Synergies Between Division of Labor and Gut Microbiomes of Social Insects

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veronica M. Sinotte ◽  
Justinn Renelies-Hamilton ◽  
Benjamin A. Taylor ◽  
Kirsten M. Ellegaard ◽  
Panagiotis Sapountzis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Division Of Labor ◽  
Social Insects

Human and ant social behavior should be compared in a very careful way to draw valid parallels

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ewa Joanna Godzińska
Keyword(s):  
Social Behavior ◽  
Division Of Labor ◽  
Social Insects ◽  
Information Transfer ◽  
Present Knowledge ◽  
Evolutionary Origins ◽  
Interesting Discussion ◽  
Human Social Behavior ◽  
Reproductive Division Of Labor ◽  
Reproductive Division

AbstractGowdy & Krall provide an interesting discussion of evolutionary origins and consequences of ultrasociality. However, some of their statements concerning various features of ant and human social behavior do not adequately reflect present knowledge about the discussed issues, which include, among others, polyethism, cultural information transfer, within-group conflicts and resistance in ant societies, and reproductive division of labor in humans.Gowdy & Krall (G&K) provide an interesting discussion of evolutionary origins and consequences of ultrasociality, an advanced form of social behavior that evolved independently in both social insects and humans. Their reflections are thought-provoking, but some statements concerning various features of ant and human social behavior do not reflect adequately the present knowledge about the discussed issues.

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