Molecular Adjustment to a Social Niche: Brain Transcriptomes Reveal Divergent Influence of Social Environment on the Two Queen Morphs of the Ant Temnothorax rugatulus.

Social insects form complex societies with division of labour between different female castes. In most species, a single queen heads the colony; in others, several queens share the task of reproduction. These different social organisations are often associated with distinct queen morphologies and life-history strategies and occur in different environments.

Desert ants avoid ambush predator pits depending on position, visual landmarks and trapped nestmates.

Central-place foragers face high predation risk when repeatedly using routes near their nest, as predators can learn to ambush them there. We investigated the factors influencing the likelihood of desert ant foragers falling into pitfall traps, simulating common predators such as antlions or spiders. We varied the spatial configuration of the pitfall traps, the presence of trapped nestmates and the availability of visual landmarks to study the workers' susceptibility to falling into pits and their foraging success.

Transcriptomic Signature of Spatial Navigation in Brains of Desert Ants.

Navigation is crucial for central-place foragers to locate food and return to the nest. ants are renowned for their advanced navigation abilities, relying on landmark cues and path integration. This study aims to uncover the transcriptomic basis of exceptional spatial learning in the central nervous system of .

Early life exposure to queen mandibular pheromone mediates persistent transcriptional changes in the brain of honey bee foragers.

Behavioural regulation in insect societies remains a fundamental question in sociobiology. In hymenopteran societies, the queen plays a crucial role in regulating group behaviour by affecting individual behaviour and physiology through modulation of worker gene expression. Honey bee (Apis mellifera) queens signal their presence via queen mandibular pheromone (QMP).