Spatial Organization in Eusocial Insects
Individuals in a social insect colony can be spatially organized, or arranged non-randomly inside the nest. These miniature territories, or spatial fidelity zones have been described in honey bees (Apis mellifera), ants (Odontomachus brunneus; Temnothorax albipennis; Pheidole dentata), and paper wasps (Polistes dominulus, Ropalidia revolutionalis). While residing in these zones, workers perform the task appropriate to the area they reside. For example, individuals that remain in the center of an ant nest are more likely to feed larvae, whereas individuals found at the periphery of the nest are more likely to forage. E. O. Wilson proposed that by remaining in small, non-random areas inside the nest, the distance an individual moves between tasks may be minimized, and overall colony efficiency would increase.
Read more about this topic: Spatial Organization
Famous quotes containing the words organization and/or insects:
“In any great organization it is far, far safer to be wrong with the majority than to be right alone.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)
“There are men from whom nature or some peculiar destiny has removed the cover beneath which we hide our own madness. They are like thin-skinned insects whose visible play of muscles seem to make them deformed, though in fact, everything soon turns to its normal shape again.”
—E.T.A.W. (Ernst Theodor Amadeus Wilhelm)