Division of labour (DOL) is ubiquitous across biological hierarchies. In eusocial insects, DOL is often characterized by age-related task allocation, but workers can flexibly change their tasks, allowing for DOL reconstruction in fluctuating environments. Behavioural change driven by individual experience is regarded as a key to understanding this task flexibility. However, experimental evidence for the influence of individual experience is remains sparse. Here we tested the effect of individual experience on task choice in the queenless ponerine ant, Diacamma cf. indicum from Japan. We confirmed that both nurses and foragers shifted to vacant tasks when the colony composition was biased to one or the other. We also found that nurses which are induced to forage readily revert to nursing when reintroduced into balanced colonies. In contrast, foragers which are induced to revert to nursing very rarely return to a foraging role, even 19 days post reintroduction to their original colony. Taken together, our results suggest that individual experience decreases the response threshold of original foragers, as they continue to be specialist nurses in a disturbed colony. However, original nurses do not appear strongly affected by having forager experience and revert to being nurses. Therefore, while individual experience does have an effect, other factors, such as reproductive ability, are clearly required to understand DOL maintenance in fluctuating environments.

中文翻译：

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个体经验影响无蚁后蚁群扰动下的分工重建

分工 (DOL) 在生物等级中无处不在。在真社会昆虫中，DOL 的特征通常是与年龄相关的任务分配，但工人可以灵活地改变他们的任务，允许在波动的环境中重建 DOL。由个人经验驱动的行为改变被认为是理解这种任务灵活性的关键。然而，关于个人经验影响的实验证据仍然很少。在这里，我们测试了个体经验对无皇后蚁后任务选择的影响，Diacamma cf。来自日本的指标。我们证实，当菌落组成偏向其中一个时，护士和觅食者都会转移到空缺的任务中。我们还发现，被诱导觅食的护士在重新引入平衡的殖民地时很容易恢复护理。相比之下，被诱导恢复觅食的觅食者很少恢复觅食角色，即使是在重新引入其原群后 19 天。综上所述，我们的研究结果表明，个体经验降低了原始觅食者的反应阈值，因为他们仍然是受干扰的群体中的专科护士。然而，原来的护士似乎并没有受到觅食经验的强烈影响，而是重新成为护士。因此，虽然个人经验确实有影响，但其他因素，如生殖能力，显然需要了解波动环境中的 DOL 维护。我们的研究结果表明，个体经验降低了原始觅食者的反应阈值，因为他们继续在受干扰的群体中担任专科护士。然而，原来的护士似乎并没有受到觅食经验的强烈影响，而是重新成为护士。因此，虽然个人经验确实有影响，但其他因素，如生殖能力，显然需要了解波动环境中的 DOL 维护。我们的研究结果表明，个体经验降低了原始觅食者的反应阈值，因为他们继续在受干扰的群体中担任专科护士。然而，原来的护士似乎并没有受到觅食经验的强烈影响，而是重新成为护士。因此，虽然个人经验确实有影响，但其他因素，如生殖能力，显然需要了解波动环境中的 DOL 维护。