Publications associées à Solenopsis invicta

Targeted worker removal reveals a lack of flexibility in brood transport specialisation with no compensatory gain in efficiency

Mahmut Selman Sakar, Laurent Keller, Fazil Emre Uslu

Division of labour is widely thought to increase the task efficiency of eusocial insects. Workers can switch their task to compensate for sudden changes in demand, providing flexible task allocation. In combination with automated tracking technology, we de ...

Nature Research2024

Multiple nest entrances alter foraging and information transfer in ants

Bertrand Eric Collignon

The ecological success of ants relies on their ability to discover and collectively exploit available resources. In this process, the nest entrances are key locations at which foragers transfer food and information about the surrounding environment. We ass ...

2020

Social network plasticity decreases disease transmission in a eusocial insect

Alessandro Crespi, Laurent Keller

Animal social networks are shaped by multiple selection pressures, including the need to ensure efficient communication and functioning while simultaneously limiting disease transmission. Social animals could potentially further reduce epidemic risk by alt ...

American Association for the Advancement of Science2018

Oral transfer of chemical cues, growth proteins and hormones in social insects

Laure Menin, Oksana Riba Grognuz, Daniel Ortiz Trujillo, Laurent Keller

Social insects frequently engage in oral fluid exchange trophallaxis between adults, and between adults and larvae. Although trophallaxis is widely considered a food-sharing mechanism, we hypothesized that endogenous components of this fluid might underlie ...

Elife Sciences Publications Ltd2016

Effects of ploidy and sex-locus genotype on gene expression patterns in the fire ant Solenopsis invicta

Chitsanu Khurewathanakul, Oksana Riba Grognuz, Laurent Keller

Males in many animal species differ greatly from females in morphology, physiology and behaviour. Ants, bees and wasps have a haplodiploid mechanism of sex determination whereby unfertilized eggs become males while fertilized eggs become females. However, ...

Royal Soc2014

Loss of reproductive parasitism following transfer of male-killing Wolbachia to Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila simulans

Wolbachia manipulate insect host biology through a variety of means that result in increased production of infected females, enhancing its own transmission. A Wolbachia strain (wInn) naturally infecting Drosophila innubila induces male killing, while nativ ...

Nature Publishing Group2012