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SUMMARY:Queens\, workers\, and working queens: morphological adaptations r
 elated to caste-specific behaviours in ants - Roberto A. Keller - Institut
 o Gulbenkian de Ciência\, Oeiras\, Portugal
DTSTART:20111108T160000Z
DTEND:20111108T170000Z
UID:TALK32141@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Oskar Brattstrom
DESCRIPTION:The ecological dominance of ants in terrestrial ecosystems is 
 unparalleled in the animal kingdom. Ants exploit a broader spectrum of tro
 phic resources compared to other social insects\, and have radiated into m
 ore species. This evolutionary success is often attributed to the females
 ’ division of labour into a reproductive queen caste and a functionally 
 sterile worker caste responsible for colony maintenance. However\, because
  no other group of social insects reaches equivalent levels of adaptive ra
 diation\, factors other than social behaviour might have helped shape ant 
 diversification. Queen-worker dimorphism is especially dramatic in ants be
 cause workers are completely wingless. The current paradigm views ant work
 ers as a caste of degenerate queens\, with the idea that simple suppressio
 n of gene expression\, tissue development\, and behavior (both reproductio
 n and dispersal) are the basis for their phenotype. Winglessness in ant wo
 rkers is thought to be advantageous only because it facilitates movement i
 n tight cavities. In this talk\, I provide data showing that workers are m
 uch more than simply wingless queens. Several skeletomuscular modification
 s provide increased force to the head-thorax articulation\, presumably con
 tributing to the workers’ sophisticated use of their forward-pointing ma
 ndibles. I then show that queens belonging to different clades have indepe
 ndently acquired similar thoracic modifications\, which in this caste corr
 elate with the alternative modes of colony foundation. Given that the inno
 vations in workers are present across all ant lineages\, I suggest that th
 eir evolution in the common ancestor contributed to the diversification of
  foraging habits\, and hence ecological dominance of this group.
LOCATION:Part II Lecture Theatre\, Department of Zoology
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