螞蟻過著一種嚴(yán)密的,、高度發(fā)達(dá)的組織生活,。它們因?yàn)榱α俊⒔M織,、團(tuán)隊(duì)合作而聞名,。但是根據(jù)《每日郵報(bào)》近日?qǐng)?bào)道，科研人員發(fā)現(xiàn)螞蟻成功的一個(gè)關(guān)鍵秘密是它們懂得在工作場(chǎng)所中年齡的重要性,。
俄勒岡大學(xué)和俄勒岡州立大學(xué)的研究人員對(duì)中美洲的切葉蟻進(jìn)行了研究,，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)，蟻群中年輕和精力充沛的成員被委派去做最艱難的工作——將蟻群收集起來的葉片切成碎片,。這些身強(qiáng)力壯的切葉蟻用它們銳利的牙齒做起這種工作來很有效率,，但是隨著年齡的增長(zhǎng)，它們的牙齒也會(huì)變得破舊而遲鈍,。
但是年長(zhǎng)的切葉蟻退休后并沒有成為蟻群中的廢物,，它們被賦予了另一種更合適的工作,，也就是搬運(yùn)葉片,。像人類一樣，這些螞蟻承認(rèn)那些年老的成員仍然能夠?yàn)榧易遄鲐暙I(xiàn),。
斯科菲爾德博士說：“這項(xiàng)研究證明了社會(huì)生活的一個(gè)優(yōu)勢(shì),，這一點(diǎn)是我們所熟悉的。那些不能做某種特定工作的人們?nèi)匀豢梢詾樯鐣?huì)做出很大的貢獻(xiàn),。”（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推薦原文出處：
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology DOI: 10.1007/s00265-010-1098-6Online First?
Leaf-cutter ants with worn mandibles cut half as fast, spend twice the energy, and tend to carry instead of cut
Robert M. S. Schofield, Kristen D. Emmett, Jack C. Niedbala and Michael H. Nesson
Abstract
The importance of mechanical wear in the behavioral ecology and energetics of small organisms is an open question. We investigated wear in leaf-cutter ants, Atta cephalotes, because their cutting technique can be imitated and the leaves are the main energy source for the colony. We found that a razor-sharp (50-nm radius) “V-blade” that cuts leaves between the first and second mandibular teeth was dulled (～10-μm radius) and often nearly worn away on foragers. We found that the force required to cut standard leaves, using mandibles removed from foragers cutting in the wild, varied by a factor of 2.5 with tooth wear, defined as the difference between pupal and actual tooth length. We also found that wear significantly reduced the cutting rate. From the distribution of wear among the cutting foragers, we estimated that the wild colony would have spent 44% less of both energy and time making the observed cuts if the cutters’ mandibles had all been pristine. Finally, wear correlated with behavioral differences—foragers with the most worn 10% of mandibles almost exclusively carried rather than cut. This previously unreported form of task partitioning suggests that eusociality may extend useful lifespans by making it possible to switch tasks as skills decline. We developed a model, assuming that ants do work at a constant rate proportional to their mass, to predict the cutting rate from head width, tooth wear, and force to cut leaves with a scalpel (R?=?0.62), and we used this estimate to argue that the partitioning of cutting and carrying was sub-optimal but better than random. Wear’s strong effect on performance may promote wear-avoiding behavior and wear-resistant mandible composition; it may affect leaf selection and worker lifespan and it raises the possibility that wear is a similarly important constraint for many other small organisms.
Keywords Atta cephalotes - Task allocation - Energetics - Cutting rate - Wear - Task partitioning - Aging
