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| PNAS：揭示特殊蜂群分工基于蜜蜂体形大小 |
| 添加时间：2012-01-20 11:22:13 浏览次数：1858
来源：生物谷
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近日，国际著名杂志《美国国家科学院院刊》PNAS在线刊登了国外研究人员的最新研究成果“A morphologically specialized soldier caste improves colony defense in a neotropical eusocial bee，”，文章中，作者揭示了特殊蜂群分工基于蜜蜂体形大小。
在大多数的蜜蜂种群里，蜜蜂们都是“万事通”。
在蜂房里，它们根据年龄来分配工作，而当变得年长一些的时候，则会顺着一个分工等级表往上升迁。
但是，根据一项最新的研究，与此相反，在巴西一种通常被称为雅塔伊的无刺蜂蜂群（为新热无刺蜂亚属）中，其分工是基于蜜蜂体形的大小和形状，而此种现象只有在白蚁类和蚂蚁中出现过。
在雅塔伊蜂群中，守卫蜂们通过在其领地附近的上空盘旋和在蜂巢入口站岗（如图所示）两种形式，守护着蜂群的巢穴领地不被强盗蜂及其他入侵者侵犯。它们与执行其他任务的蜜蜂，例如负责在蜂房里清除垃圾或者觅食的蜜蜂，在体形上截然不同。
同其他的工蜂相比，在体形大小上，守卫蜂们的身体更为强壮，头部较小，但后腿较为强健。在雅塔伊守卫蜂和强盗蜂之间上演的打斗中，体形较大的雅塔伊蜂战斗持续的时间更长。研究人员于近日在美国《国家科学院院刊》上在线报道了此项研究成果。
但是，如果遇到一场大型的攻击，其他的蜜蜂种群可能会占据优势，因为它们能快速地从其队伍中“临时雇用”更多的守卫蜂，而雅塔伊蜂却不得不等待更多的守卫蜂出生。（生物谷Bioon.com）
A morphologically specialized soldier caste improves colony defense in a neotropical eusocial bee
Grüter, Christoph; Menezes, Cristiano; Imperatriz-Fonseca, Vera L.; Ratnieks, Francis L. W.
Division of labor among workers is common in insect societies and is thought to be important in their ecological success. In most species, division of labor is based on age (temporal castes), but workers in some ants and termites show morphological specialization for particular tasks (physical castes). Large-headed soldier ants and termites are well-known examples of this specialization. However, until now there has been no equivalent example of physical worker subcastes in social bees or wasps. Here we provide evidence for a physical soldier subcaste in a bee. In the neotropical stingless bee Tetragonisca angustula, nest defense is performed by two groups of guards, one hovering near the nest entrance and the other standing on the wax entrance tube. We show that both types of guards are 30% heavier than foragers and of different shape; foragers have relatively larger heads, whereas guards have larger legs. Low variation within each subcaste results in negligible size overlap between guards and foragers, further indicating that they are distinct physical castes. In addition, workers that remove garbage from the nest are of intermediate size, suggesting that they might represent another unrecognized caste. Guards or soldiers are reared in low but sufficient numbers (1–2% of emerging workers), considering that <1% usually perform this task. When challenged by the obligate robber bee Lestrimelitta limao, an important natural enemy, larger workers were able to fight for longer before being defeated by the much larger robber. This discovery opens up opportunities for the comparative study of physical castes in social insects, including the question of why soldiers appear to be so much rarer in bees than in ants or termites.
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