Gustatory responsiveness in Vespula germanica workers: exploring the interplay between sensory perception and task specialization
Workers’ task specialization and division of labor are critical features of social insects’ ecological success. It has been proposed that the division of labor relies on response threshold models: individuals varying their sensitivity (and responsiveness) to biologically relevant stimuli and performing a specific task when a stimulus exceeds an internal threshold. In this work, we study carbohydrate and protein responsiveness and their relation to worker task specialization in Vespula germanica, an invasive social wasp. The sucrose and peptone responsiveness of two different subcastes, preforagers and foragers, was determined by stimulating the antenna of the wasps with increasing concentrations of the solution and quantifying whether each concentration elicited a licking response. We studied responsiveness in five different ways: (1) response threshold, (2) concentration 50 (concentration to which at least 50% of wasps responded), (3) maximum response, (4) mean scores and (5) median scores. Our results suggest that V. germanica foragers are more sensitive to sucrose (lower thresholds) than preforager workers. However, we found no differences for peptone thresholds (i.e., a protein resource). Nonetheless, this is the first study to investigate response thresholds for protein resources. The intercaste variation in sucrose responsiveness shown in our work contributes to the existing knowledge about response threshold theory as a mechanism for task specialization observed in V. germanica.
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Format: | info:ar-repo/semantics/artículo biblioteca |
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Wiley
2023-08-03
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Subjects: | Vespula germanica, Estímulo, Carbohidratos, Proteínas, Especie Invasiva, Stimuli, Carbohydrates, Proteins, Invasive Species, Avispa Chaqueta Amarilla, |
Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12123/15020 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1744-7917.13258 https://doi.org/10.1111/1744-7917.13258 |
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Vespula germanica Estímulo Carbohidratos Proteínas Especie Invasiva Stimuli Carbohydrates Proteins Invasive Species Avispa Chaqueta Amarilla Vespula germanica Estímulo Carbohidratos Proteínas Especie Invasiva Stimuli Carbohydrates Proteins Invasive Species Avispa Chaqueta Amarilla |
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Vespula germanica Estímulo Carbohidratos Proteínas Especie Invasiva Stimuli Carbohydrates Proteins Invasive Species Avispa Chaqueta Amarilla Vespula germanica Estímulo Carbohidratos Proteínas Especie Invasiva Stimuli Carbohydrates Proteins Invasive Species Avispa Chaqueta Amarilla Mattiacci, Analia Mengoni Goñalons, Carolina Masciocchi, Maite Corley, Juan Carlos Gustatory responsiveness in Vespula germanica workers: exploring the interplay between sensory perception and task specialization |
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Workers’ task specialization and division of labor are critical features of social insects’ ecological success. It has been proposed that the division of labor relies on response threshold models: individuals varying their sensitivity (and responsiveness) to biologically relevant stimuli and performing a specific task when a stimulus exceeds an internal threshold. In this work, we study carbohydrate and protein responsiveness and their relation to worker task specialization in Vespula germanica, an invasive social wasp. The sucrose and peptone responsiveness of two different subcastes, preforagers and foragers, was determined by stimulating the antenna of the wasps with increasing concentrations of the solution and quantifying whether each concentration elicited a licking response. We studied responsiveness in five different ways: (1) response threshold, (2) concentration 50 (concentration to which at least 50% of wasps responded), (3) maximum response, (4) mean scores and (5) median scores. Our results suggest that V. germanica foragers are more sensitive to sucrose (lower thresholds) than preforager workers. However, we found no differences for peptone thresholds (i.e., a protein resource). Nonetheless, this is the first study to investigate response thresholds for protein resources. The intercaste variation in sucrose responsiveness shown in our work contributes to the existing knowledge about response threshold theory as a mechanism for task specialization observed in V. germanica. |
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Vespula germanica Estímulo Carbohidratos Proteínas Especie Invasiva Stimuli Carbohydrates Proteins Invasive Species Avispa Chaqueta Amarilla |
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Mattiacci, Analia Mengoni Goñalons, Carolina Masciocchi, Maite Corley, Juan Carlos |
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Mattiacci, Analia Mengoni Goñalons, Carolina Masciocchi, Maite Corley, Juan Carlos |
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Mattiacci, Analia |
title |
Gustatory responsiveness in Vespula germanica workers: exploring the interplay between sensory perception and task specialization |
title_short |
Gustatory responsiveness in Vespula germanica workers: exploring the interplay between sensory perception and task specialization |
title_full |
Gustatory responsiveness in Vespula germanica workers: exploring the interplay between sensory perception and task specialization |
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Gustatory responsiveness in Vespula germanica workers: exploring the interplay between sensory perception and task specialization |
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Gustatory responsiveness in Vespula germanica workers: exploring the interplay between sensory perception and task specialization |
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gustatory responsiveness in vespula germanica workers: exploring the interplay between sensory perception and task specialization |
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Wiley |
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2023-08-03 |
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http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12123/15020 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1744-7917.13258 https://doi.org/10.1111/1744-7917.13258 |
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oai:localhost:20.500.12123-150202023-08-25T13:18:31Z Gustatory responsiveness in Vespula germanica workers: exploring the interplay between sensory perception and task specialization Mattiacci, Analia Mengoni Goñalons, Carolina Masciocchi, Maite Corley, Juan Carlos Vespula germanica Estímulo Carbohidratos Proteínas Especie Invasiva Stimuli Carbohydrates Proteins Invasive Species Avispa Chaqueta Amarilla Workers’ task specialization and division of labor are critical features of social insects’ ecological success. It has been proposed that the division of labor relies on response threshold models: individuals varying their sensitivity (and responsiveness) to biologically relevant stimuli and performing a specific task when a stimulus exceeds an internal threshold. In this work, we study carbohydrate and protein responsiveness and their relation to worker task specialization in Vespula germanica, an invasive social wasp. The sucrose and peptone responsiveness of two different subcastes, preforagers and foragers, was determined by stimulating the antenna of the wasps with increasing concentrations of the solution and quantifying whether each concentration elicited a licking response. We studied responsiveness in five different ways: (1) response threshold, (2) concentration 50 (concentration to which at least 50% of wasps responded), (3) maximum response, (4) mean scores and (5) median scores. Our results suggest that V. germanica foragers are more sensitive to sucrose (lower thresholds) than preforager workers. However, we found no differences for peptone thresholds (i.e., a protein resource). Nonetheless, this is the first study to investigate response thresholds for protein resources. The intercaste variation in sucrose responsiveness shown in our work contributes to the existing knowledge about response threshold theory as a mechanism for task specialization observed in V. germanica. EEA Bariloche Fil: Mattiacci, Analia. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Bariloche. Instituto de Investigaciones Forestales y Agropecuarias Bariloche (IFAB). Grupo de Ecología y Poblaciones de Insectos; Argentina Fil: Mattiacci, Analia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Forestales y Agropecuarias Bariloche (IFAB). Grupo de Ecología y Poblaciones de Insectos; Argentina Fil: Mengoni Goñalons, Carolina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biología Experimental; Argentina Fil: Masciocchi, Maite. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Bariloche. Instituto de Investigaciones Forestales y Agropecuarias Bariloche (IFAB). Grupo de Ecología y Poblaciones de Insectos; Argentina Fil: Masciocchi, Maite. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Forestales y Agropecuarias Bariloche (IFAB). Grupo de Ecología y Poblaciones de Insectos; Argentina Fil: Corley, Juan Carlos. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Bariloche. Instituto de Investigaciones Forestales y Agropecuarias Bariloche (IFAB). Grupo de Ecología y Poblaciones de Insectos; Argentina Fil: Corley, Juan Carlos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Forestales y Agropecuarias Bariloche (IFAB). Grupo de Ecología y Poblaciones de Insectos; Argentina Fil: Corley, Juan Carlos. Universidad Nacional Del Comahue. Centro Regional Universitario Bariloche. Departamento de Ecología; Argentina 2023-08-25T13:10:05Z 2023-08-25T13:10:05Z 2023-08-03 info:ar-repo/semantics/artículo info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12123/15020 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1744-7917.13258 1744-7917 https://doi.org/10.1111/1744-7917.13258 eng info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) application/pdf Wiley Insect Science : 1-12. (First published: 03 August 2023) |