Both age and social environment shape the phenotype of ant workers.

Position within the social group has consequences on individual lifespans in diverse taxa. This is especially obvious in eusocial insects, where workers differ in both the tasks they perform and their aging rates. However, in eusocial wasps, bees and ants, the performed task usually depends strongly on age.

Cascading Effects of Conspecific Aggression on Oxidative Status and Telomere Length in Zebra Finches.

Living in social groups may exacerbate interindividual competition for territory, food, and mates, leading to stress and possible health consequences. Unfavorable social contexts have been shown to elevate glucocorticoid levels (often used as biomarkers of individual stress), but the downstream consequences of socially stressful environments are rarely explored. Our study experimentally tests the mechanistic links between social aggression, oxidative stress, and somatic maintenance in captive zebra finches ().

Irreversible impact of early thermal conditions: an integrative study of developmental plasticity linked to mobility in a butterfly species.

Within populations, phenotypic plasticity may allow adaptive phenotypic variation in response to selection generated by environmental heterogeneity. For instance, in multivoltine species, seasonal changes between and within generations may trigger morphological and physiological variation enhancing fitness under different environmental conditions. These seasonal changes may irreversibly affect adult phenotypes when experienced during development.

Eusociality is linked to caste-specific differences in metabolism, immune system, and somatic maintenance-related processes in an ant species.

The social organization of many primate, bird and rodent species and the role of individuals within that organization are associated with specific individual physiological traits. However, this association is perhaps most pronounced in eusocial insects (e.g.

Contrasting associations between nestling telomere length and pre and postnatal helpers' presence in a cooperatively breeding bird.

Studies on cooperative breeders have addressed the effects of non-breeding 'helpers' on reproduction and parental care, but the consequences for offspring physiology and long-term survival are less understood. Helpers are expected to benefit offspring, but their presence can also lead to decreased pre- or post-natal parental reproductive effort. To examine whether prenatal and postnatal helpers influence offspring condition, we conducted a whole-clutch cross-fostering experiment in sociable weavers (Philetairus socius) that altered the nestlings' social environment (presence/absence of helpers).

Hierarchical networks of food exchange in the black garden ant Lasius niger.

In most eusocial insects, the division of labor results in relatively few individuals foraging for the entire colony. Thus, the survival of the colony depends on its efficiency in meeting the nutritional needs of all its members. Here, we characterize the network topology of a eusocial insect to understand the role and centrality of each caste in this network during the process of food dissemination.

Division of labour in the black garden ant (Lasius niger) leads to three distinct proteomes.

Task specialization in social insects leads to striking intra-specific differences in behaviour, morphology, physiology and longevity, but the underlying mechanisms remain not yet fully understood. Adult colonies of black garden ants (Lasius niger) have a single queen fertilized by one or a small number of males. The inter-individual genetic variability is thus relatively low, making it easier to focus on the individual molecular differences linked to the division of labour.