ArticleeLife2014
Evolution of thorax architecture in ant castes highlights trade-off between flight and ground behaviors.
Article in eLife, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 20 papers.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed.
- The predatory behavior of ants: an impressive panoply of morphological adaptations.Insect science · 2026Review
- Fitness related effects of titanium dioxide nanoparticles and glyphosate exposure on Cardiocondyla obscurior.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2026Article
- The Mesosoma of Protanilla (Leptanillinae) and the Groundplan of the Formicidae (Hymenoptera).Journal of morphology · 2025Article
- Evidence of a thoracic crop in workers, soldiers, and queens of Carebara perpusilla ants (Formicidae: Myrmicinae).Die Naturwissenschaften · 2023Article
- Mechanical demands of bite in plane head shapes of ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) workers.Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- Mandibular morphology, task specialization and bite mechanics inJournal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2021Article
- Male-biased dispersal in a fungus-gardening ant symbiosis.Ecology and evolution · 2021Article
- The Pronotum of Worker of Camponotus borellii Emery (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): How Can It Affect Performance of the Head, Work Division, and Development of the Worker Caste?Neotropical entomology · 2021Article
- Macroevolutionary integration of phenotypes within and across ant worker castes.Ecology and evolution · 2020Article
- The loss of flight in ant workers enabled an evolutionary redesign of the thorax for ground labour.Frontiers in zoology · 2020Article
- Ant-like Traits in Wingless Parasitoids Repel Attack from Wolf Spiders.Journal of chemical ecology · 2018Article
- Article
- Dispersal strategies in the highly polygynous ant Crematogaster (Orthocrema) pygmaea Forel (Formicidae: Myrmicinae).PloS one · 2017Article
- Article
- Article
- Dispersal Polymorphisms in Invasive Fire Ants.PloS one · 2016Article
- Inordinate Spinescence: Taxonomic Revision and Microtomography of the Pheidole cervicornis Species Group (Hymenoptera, Formicidae).PloS one · 2016Article
- Adaptive developmental plasticity: compartmentalized responses to environmental cues and to corresponding internal signals provide phenotypic flexibility.BMC biology · 2014Article
- One size does not fit all.eLife · 2014Article
- Evolution of thorax architecture in ant castes highlights trade-off between flight and ground behaviors.eLife · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Erratum issued
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3 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The concerted evolution of morphological and behavioral specializations has compelling examples in ant castes. Unique to ants is a marked divergence between winged queens and wingless workers, but morphological specializations for behaviors on the ground have been overlooked. We analyzed thorax morphology of queens and workers in species from 21 of the 25 ant subfamilies. We uncovered unique skeletomuscular modifications in workers that presumably increase power and flexibility of head-thorax articulation, emphasizing that workers are not simply wingless versions of queens. We also identified two distinct types of queens and showed repeated evolutionary associations with strategies of colony foundation. Solitary founding queens that hunt have a more worker-like thorax. Our results reveal that ants invest in the relative size of thorax segments according to their tasks. Versatility of head movements allows for better manipulation of food and objects, which arguably contributed to the ants' ecological and evolutionary success. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.01539.001.
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