Social insects are hosts of diverse parasites, but the influence of these parasites on phenotypic host traits is not yet well understood. Here, we tracked the survival of tapeworm-infected ant workers, their uninfected nest-mates and of ants from unparasitized colonies. Our multi-year study on the ant Temnothorax nylanderi, the intermediate host of the tapeworm Anomotaenia brevis, revealed a prolonged lifespan of infected workers compared with their uninfected peers. Intriguingly, their survival over 3 years did not differ from those of (uninfected) queens, whose lifespan can reach two decades. By contrast, uninfected workers from parasitized colonies suffered from increased mortality compared with uninfected workers from unparasitized colonies. Infected workers exhibited a metabolic rate and lipid content similar to young workers in this species, and they received more social care than uninfected workers and queens in their colonies. This increased attention could be mediated by their deviant chemical profile, which we determined to elicit more interest from uninfected nest-mates in a separate experiment. In conclusion, our study demonstrates an extreme lifespan extension in a social host following tapeworm infection, which appears to enable host workers to retain traits typical for young workers.

社交昆虫是多种寄生虫的宿主，但这些寄生虫对表型宿主特征的影响尚不十分清楚。在这里，我们跟踪了感染tape虫的蚂蚁工人，未感染的巢伙伴以及来自未寄生虫菌落的蚂蚁的生存情况。我们对蚂蚁Temnothorax nylanderi进行了数年的研究，这是the虫短形Anomotaenia brevis的中间宿主，与被感染的工人相比，被感染的工人的寿命更长。有趣的是，它们在3年的生存期与（未感染的）皇后区的生存期没有什么不同，皇后区的寿命可以达到20年。相比之下，来自寄生虫菌落的未感染工人与未寄生虫菌落的未感染工人相比死亡率增加。被感染的工人的代谢率和脂质含量与该物种的年轻工人相似，并且比未感染的工人和女王/王后获得更多的社会照顾。注意力的增加可能是由它们异常的化学特征所介导的，我们决定在一个单独的实验中从未感染的巢伙伴身上引起更多的兴趣。总之，我们的研究表明，tape虫感染后，社交宿主的寿命会极端延长，