ArticleBiology letters2018
Age-based soldier polyethism: old termite soldiers take more risks than young soldiers.
Article in Biology letters, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 54 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sex-specific division of labor in termites is linked to differential brain architecture and foraging gene expression.iScience · 2026Article
- Social immunity in a supercolonial invasive ant: Nest structure confers immune function.The Journal of animal ecology · 2026Article
- Changes of division of labour along the eusociality spectrum in termites, with comparisons to multicellularity.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- The evolution of division of labour: preconditions and evolutionary feedback.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- Division of labour in colony defence in a clonal ant.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Identification of a colony- and dose-dependent worker aggregation pheromone in the subterranean termite Reticulitermes virginicus.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Dynamics of dimorphic workers of Constrictotermes cyphergaster (Blattodea: Termitidae) during nest repair.Journal of insect science (Online) · 2024Article
- Injury shortens life expectancy in ants and affects some risk-related decisions of workers.Animal cognition · 2023Article
- Plastic brain structure changes associated with the division of labor and aging in termites.Development, growth & differentiation · 2023Article
- Developmental biomechanics and age polyethism in leaf-cutter ants.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Discovery of an underground chamber to protect kings and queens during winter in temperate termites.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- From inter-group conflict to inter-group cooperation: insights from social insects.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Review
- Age-based spatial distribution of workers is resilient to worker loss in a subterranean termite.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Social modulation of ageing: mechanisms, ecology, evolution.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021Review
- Why and how do termite kings and queens live so long?Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Age-Dependent Increase in Soldier Pheromone of the Termite Reticulitermes speratus.Journal of chemical ecology · 2020Article
- Chemical identification of an aggregation pheromone in the termite Reticulitermes speratus.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Reproduction deep inside wood: a low OBiology letters · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Who should take on risky tasks in an age-heterogeneous society? Life-history theory predicts that, in social insects, riskier tasks should be undertaken by sterile individuals with a shorter life expectancy. The loss of individuals with shorter life expectancy is less costly for colony reproductive success than the loss of individuals with longer life expectancy. Termite colonies have a sterile soldier caste, specialized defenders engaged in the most risky tasks. Here we show that termite soldiers exhibit age-dependent polyethism, as old soldiers are engaged in front-line defence more than young soldiers. Our nest defence experiment showed that old soldiers went to the front line and blocked the nest opening against approaching predatory ants more often than young soldiers. We also found that young soldiers were more biased toward choosing central nest defence as royal guards than old soldiers. These results demonstrate that termite soldiers have age-based task allocation, by which ageing predisposes soldiers to switch to more dangerous tasks. This age-dependent soldier task allocation increases the life expectancy of soldiers, allowing them to promote their lifetime contribution to colony reproductive success.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.