Summary
The seed-harvester antVeromessor pergandei Mayr is primitively polymorphic; workers are monophasically allometric. There is a distinct annual cycle in mean worker body size that replicates across colonies and habitats (Fig. 1); this cycle occurs through alteration of the worker size distribution (Fig. 2). There is little, if any, morphspecific task specialization by workers suggesting worker size variance is a colony-level adaptation permitting maintenance of a large and constant worker force during periods of resource fluctuation. Smaller workers appear in the foraging force following the “triple crunch” of reduced seed availability, reduced favorable times to forage, and alate production during winter months. Adult and startingV. pergandei colonies exhibit strong intraspecific territoriality, suggesting the selective advantage for maintenance of a large and constant worker force. Such selective pressures may have provided the initial variance in worker size distributions that led subsequently to specialized castespecific task performance in more distinctly polymorphic ant species.
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Rissing, S.W. Annual cycles in worker size of the seed-harvester antVeromessor pergandei (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 20, 117–124 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00572633
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00572633