Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 17 November 1978:
Vol. 202. no. 4369, pp. 770 - 772
DOI: 10.1126/science.202.4369.770
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Caste in a Primitive Ant: Absence of Age Polyethism in Amblyopone

JAMES F. A. TRANIELLO 1

1 Department of Biology, Museum of Comparative Zoology Laboratories, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138

Polyethism, the divison of labor among members of a colony, is based on worker age and size in ants. In the ponerine species Amblyopone pallipes worker behavior is independent of age, therefore temporal castes, or groups of age-related task specialists, do not exist. This primitive caste system, previously unknown in ants, appears to be correlated with the peculiar characteristics of the life history and ecology of Amblyopone.

Submitted on May 23, 1978
Revised on August 7, 1978


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
The Sociogenesis of Insect Colonies.
E. O. Wilson (1985)
Science 228, 1489-1495
   Abstract »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)