I.
Sterile castes in social insects.
A queen of the army ant Eciton burchelli. As in all ants,
the queen is responsible for all the reproduction in the nest and may lay
between 100,000 and 300,000 eggs in a three-week period. (From E.
O. Wilson. 1971. The Insect Societies. Belknap Press,
Cambridge MA.)
Castes
in the ant Pheidole kingi. The queen is the lower right individual.
Immediately above the queen is a male. Other individuals are sterile
workers. (From E. O. Wilson. 1971. The Insect Societies.
Belknap Press, Cambridge MA.)
A nest of the paper wasp, Polistes fuscatus. Workers are of
two types: secondary foundresses and workers proper. Secondary foundresses
have the physiological capability to reproduce and are inseminated, but
when they join the nest of a primary foundress, their ovaries regress and
they fail to reproduce. Workers proper are the progeny of the queen
and are not inseminated. (From E. O. Wilson. 1971.
The Insect Societies. Belknap Press, Cambridge MA.)
Adult
castes in the hornet, Vespula maculata. Top picture: worker.
Bottom picture: queen. Workers are sterile. (From E.
O. Wilson. 1971. The Insect Societies. Belknap Press,
Cambridge MA.)
Queen, male, and workers in a nest of the termite Amitermes hastatus.
Workers are kept permanently in a juvenile state
by pheromones
emitted by the queen, and thus do not reproduce. (From E. O. Wilson.
1971. The Insect Societies.
Belknap Press,
Cambridge MA.)
II.
Alarm calls in mammals
Female Belding's ground squirrel (Spermophilus beldingi) emitting
an alarm call. Alarm calls are given to warn other individuals about
the presence of a nearby predator and are usually directed toward close
kin. It is believed that giving an alarm call increases the chance
that the predator will attack the caller. (From J. W. Bradbury and S. L.
Veherencamp. 1998. Principles of Animal Communication.
Sinauer, Sunderland, MA.)
III.
Division of Labor in Coelentrates
The
Portugese man-of-war, Physalia physalis, is a colonial coelentrate.
What appears to be one individual is really a colony of individuals that
perform different functions (see next picture).
A.
and B. Colony of the coelentrate Muggiaea showing the functional
specialization of individual zooids.
IV.
Helpers at the nest in Florida Scrub Jays
Drawing
of mated pair, nestlings, and helper (left) at a nest of the Florida Scrub
Jay (Aphelocoma coerulescens). (From E. O. Wilson. 1975.
Sociobiology: The New Synthesis. Belknap Press, Cambridge, MA.)
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