We examined temporal polyethism in Pogonomyrmex rugosus, predicting a pattern of decreasing age from foragers to nest maintenance workers to individuals that were recruited to harvest a temporary food source. Nest maintenance workers were younger than foragers, as indicated by their heavier mass and lower mandibular wear. In contrast, recruited foragers were similar in mass to foragers but they displayed higher mandibular wear, suggesting that they were at least as old as foragers. Longevity estimates for marked individuals of these two latter task groups showed mixed results. Higher mandibular wear of recruited foragers suggests that they did not follow the normal sequence for temporal polyethism, but rather that they functioned as seed-millers, which should more quickly abrade their dentition. This would be the first demonstration of specialist milling individuals in a monomorphic seed-harvester ant.

中文翻译：

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种子收割机蚂蚁 Pogonomyrmex Rugosus 的老太太：两组工人的觅食

我们检查了 Pogonomyrmex rugosus 中的时间多伦理性，预测了从觅食者到巢穴维护工人再到被招募来收获临时食物来源的个体的年龄递减模式。巢维护工人比觅食工人年轻，这从他们更重的质量和更低的下颌磨损可见一斑。相比之下，被招募的觅食者的体重与觅食者相似，但他们的下颌磨损程度更高，这表明他们至少和觅食者一样老。后两个任务组的标记个体的寿命估计显示出不同的结果。被招募的觅食者的下颌磨损程度较高表明他们没有遵循时间多伦理的正常顺序，而是他们充当种子碾磨者，这应该更快地磨损他们的牙列。