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Task Allocation And Partitioning Of Social Insects
Task allocation and partitioning is the way that tasks are chosen, assigned, subdivided, and coordinated within a colony of social insects. Task allocation and partitioning gives rise to the division of labor often observed in social insect colonies, whereby individuals specialize on different tasks within the colony (e.g., "foragers", "nurses"). Communication is closely related to the ability to allocate tasks among individuals within a group. This entry focuses exclusively on social insects. For information on human task allocation and partitioning, see division of labour, task analysis, and workflow. Definitions * Task allocation "... is the process that results in specific workers being engaged in specific tasks, in numbers appropriate to the current situation. toperates without any central or hierarchical control..." The concept of task allocation is individual-centric. It focuses on decisions by individuals about what task to perform. However, different biomathematical models ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Communication
Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inquiry studying them. There are many disagreements about its precise definition. John Peters argues that the difficulty of defining communication emerges from the fact that communication is both a Universality (philosophy), universal phenomenon and a Communication studies, specific discipline of institutional academic study. One definitional strategy involves limiting what can be included in the category of communication (for example, requiring a "conscious intent" to persuade). By this logic, one possible definition of communication is the act of developing Semantics, meaning among Subject (philosophy), entities or Organization, groups through the use of sufficiently mutually understood signs, symbols, and Semiosis, semiotic conventions. An im ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polyethism
Polyethism is the term used for functional specialization of non-reproductive individuals in a colony of social organisms, particularly insects. Division of labour is considered a key aspect of eusociality and can be seen in a variety of forms. In some insects, there are distinct morphological differences among the individuals that decide their function in the colony, and this is termed as caste or morphological polyethism and is associated with polymorphism. Functions of individuals within the colony that are identical in morphology may however vary in the tasks taken up with the age of the individuals. In some species riskier activities are taken up by older individuals. This is termed as age polyethism. Time- and season-related specialization may also be termed more generically as temporal polyethism. The mechanisms involved in the control of polyethism has been an area of intense research in the field of sociobiology. Control of polyethism Experiments have been used to examine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Biological Network
A biological network is a method of representing systems as complex sets of binary interactions or relations between various biological entities. In general, networks or graphs are used to capture relationships between entities or objects. A typical graphing representation consists of a set of nodes connected by edges. History of networks As early as 1736 Leonhard Euler analyzed a real-world issue known as the Seven Bridges of Königsberg, which established the foundation of graph theory. From the 1930's-1950's the study of random graphs were developed. During the mid 1990's, it was discovered that many different types of "real" networks have structural properties quite different from random networks. In the late 2000's, scale-free and small-world networks began shaping the emergence of systems biology, network biology, and network medicinIn 2014, graph theoretical methods were used bFrank Emmert-Streibto analyze biological networks. In the 1980s, researchers started v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harvard University Press
Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retirement of William P. Sisler in 2017, the university appointed as Director George Andreou. The press maintains offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts near Harvard Square, and in London, England. The press co-founded the distributor TriLiteral LLC with MIT Press and Yale University Press. TriLiteral was sold to LSC Communications in 2018. Notable authors published by HUP include Eudora Welty, Walter Benjamin, E. O. Wilson, John Rawls, Emily Dickinson, Stephen Jay Gould, Helen Vendler, Carol Gilligan, Amartya Sen, David Blight, Martha Nussbaum, and Thomas Piketty. The Display Room in Harvard Square, dedicated to selling HUP publications, closed on June 17, 2009. Related publishers, imprints, and series HUP owns the Belknap Press imprint, whi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bert Hölldobler
Berthold Karl Hölldobler (born 25 June 1936) is a German sociobiologist and evolutionary biologist who studies evolution and social organization in ants. He is the author of several books, including ''The Ants'', for which he and his co-author, E. O. Wilson received the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction writing in 1991. Life Hölldobler was born June 25, 1936, in Erling-Andechs, Bavaria, Germany, the son of Karl and Maria Hölldobler. He studied biology and chemistry at the University of Würzburg. His doctoral thesis was on the social behavior of the male carpenter ant and their role in the organization of carpenter ant societies. He was named professor of zoology at the University of Frankfurt in 1971. From 1973 to 1990 he was professor of biology and Alexander Agassiz professor of zoology at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1989 he returned to Germany to accept the chair of behavioral physiology and sociobiology at the Theodor-Boveri-Institute of the Univers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vespula Germanica
''Vespula germanica'', the European wasp, German wasp, or German yellowjacket, is a species of wasp found in much of the Northern Hemisphere, native to Europe, Northern Africa, and temperate Asia. It has spread and become well-established in many other places, including North America, South America (Argentina and Chile), Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand. German wasps are part of the family Vespidae and are sometimes mistakenly referred to as paper wasps because they build grey paper nests, although strictly speaking, paper wasps are part of the subfamily Polistinae. In North America, they are also known as yellowjackets. Taxonomy and phylogeny ''Vespula germanica'' belongs to the genus ''Vespula'', which includes various species of social wasps that are found throughout the Northern Hemisphere. In North America, these wasps are most commonly known as Yellow jacket, yellowjackets, but this name also applies to species within the sister genus ''Dolichovespula''. Members o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Behavioral Ecology And Sociobiology
''Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering quantitative, empirical, and theoretical studies in the field of analysis of animal behavior at the levels of the individual, population, and community. Abstracting and indexing The journal is abstracted and indexed in: According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the journal has a 2020 impact factor The impact factor (IF) or journal impact factor (JIF) of an academic journal is a scientometric index calculated by Clarivate that reflects the yearly mean number of citations of articles published in the last two years in a given journal, as i ... of 2.980. References External links {{Official website, https://link.springer.com/journal/265 Ecology journals Ethology journals Publications established in 1976 Springer Science+Business Media academic journals Monthly journals English-language journals ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Myrmecocystus Mexicanus
''Myrmecocystus mexicanus'' is a species of ant in the genus ''Myrmecocystus'', which is one of the six genera that bear the common name "honey ant" or "honeypot ant", due to curious behavior where some of the workers will swell with liquid food until they become immobile and hang from the ceilings of nest chambers, acting as living food storage for the colony. Honey ants are found in North America, Australia, and Africa. Ant species belonging to the genus ''Myrmecocystus'' reside in North America. ''M. mexicanus'' in particular is found in the southwestern United States and parts of Mexico. Description Workers range from 3–7 mm in length and have a light tan thorax, legs and slightly darker head with black mandibles. The gaster is brownish-gray. Queens are roughly 9 mm in length. The head and mandibles are a reddish brown. The thorax is yellowish brown, and the gaster is a lighter shade of yellow. The legs are a dull yellow. Males are typically about 6 mm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Africanized Bee
The Africanized bee, also known as the Africanized honey bee and known colloquially as the "killer bee", is a hybrid of the western honey bee (''Apis mellifera''), produced originally by crossbreeding of the East African lowland honey bee (''A. m. scutellata'') with various European honey bee subspecies such as the Italian honey bee ('' A. m. ligustica'') and the Iberian honey bee ('' A. m. iberiensis''). The East African lowland honey bee was first introduced to Brazil in 1956 in an effort to increase honey production, but 26 swarms escaped quarantine in 1957. Since then, the hybrid has spread throughout South America and arrived in North America in 1985. Hives were found in south Texas in the United States in 1990. Africanized honey bees are typically much more defensive than other varieties of honey bees, and react to disturbances faster than European honey bees. They can chase a person a quarter of a mile (400 m); they have killed som ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red Harvester Ants
''Pogonomyrmex barbatus'' is a species of harvester ant from the genus ''Pogonomyrmex''. Its common names include red ant and red harvester ant. These large (5– to 7-mm) ants prefer arid chaparral habitats and are native to the Southwestern United States. Nests are made underground (up to 2.5 m deep) in exposed areas. Their diets consist primarily of seeds, and they consequently participate in myrmecochory, an ant-plant interaction through which the ants gain nutrients and the plants benefit through seed dispersal. Red harvester ants are often mistaken for fire ants, but are not closely related to any fire ant species, native or introduced. Colonization Red harvester ant nests are characterized by a lack of plant growth and small pebbles surrounding the entrance to the tunnel, which usually descends at a pronounced angle. Hulls of seeds may be found scattered around the nest. In grassland areas, such as ranches, the lack of plant life makes red harvester ant colonies very ea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Waggle Dance
Waggle dance is a term used in beekeeping and ethology for a particular figure-eight dance of the honey bee. By performing this dance, successful foragers can share information about the direction and distance to patches of flowers yielding nectar and pollen, to water sources, or to new nest-site locations with other members of the colony. The waggle dance and the round dance are two forms of dance behaviour that are part of a continuous transition. As the distance between the resource and the hive increases, the round dance transforms into variations of a transitional dance, which, when communicating resources at even greater distances, becomes the waggle dance. In the case of ''Apis mellifera ligustica'', the round dance is performed until the resource is about 10 metres away from the hive, transitional dances are performed when the resource is at a distance of 20 to 30 metres away from the hive, and finally, when it is located at distances greater than 40 metres from the hive ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Annals Of Mathematics And Artificial Intelligence
Annals ( la, annāles, from , "year") are a concise historical record in which events are arranged chronologically, year by year, although the term is also used loosely for any historical record. Scope The nature of the distinction between annals and history is a subject based on divisions established by the ancient Romans. Verrius Flaccus is quoted by Aulus Gellius as stating that the etymology of ''history'' (from Greek , , equated with Latin , "to inquire in person") properly restricts it to primary sources such as Thucydides's which have come from the author's own observations, while annals record the events of earlier times arranged according to years. White distinguishes annals from chronicles, which organize their events by topics such as the reigns of kings, and from histories, which aim to present and conclude a narrative implying the moral importance of the events recorded. Generally speaking, annalists record events drily, leaving the entries unexplained and equally we ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
