Division of labour and disease dynamics in clonal ant societies

Summary

Group-living is a widespread strategy that comes with particular costs and benefits. Here, I will describe recent findings on the emergence and regulation of division of labour—a proposed benefit of group-living—in ant colonies. I will then explain how we plan to build on this work to study if and how social organisation can mitigate the risk of disease outbreak that is often associated with group-living. This work capitalises on a new, experimentally accessible system for the study of social behaviour, the clonal raider ant, and on custom tools for the automated tracking of individual and social behaviour in groups.

Recent publications:          
 1. Alciatore, G., L. V. Ugelvig, E. Frank, J. Bidaux, A. Gal, T. Schmitt, D. J. C. Kronauer and Y. Ulrich (2021). "Immune challenges increase network centrality in a queenless ant." Proc B 288(1958).

2. Ulrich, Y., M. Kawakatsu, C. K. Tokita, J. Saragosti, V. Chandra, C. E. Tarnita and D. J. C. Kronauer (2021). "Response thresholds alone cannot explain empirical patterns of division of labor in social insects." PLoS Biol 19(6): e3001269.

3. Ulrich, Y., J. Saragosti, C. K. Tokita, C. E. Tarnita and D. J. C. Kronauer (2018). "Fitness benefits and emergent division of labour at the onset of group living." Nature 560(7720): 635-638.