Division of labor in ants, wasps, bees — and us

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• every female has the capacity to develop ovaries and grow into a queen. But in the lab, when two females are placed in a little plastic box together, one individual in every duo harasses the other to prevent ovary development and compel her into the role of a worker

• ants, wasps, bees and termites — in which individuals in large colonies often specialize in particular tasks, making them impressively effective

• Jennifer Fewell, a social insect biologist

• there is no central controller telling everybody what to do, but instead, the division of labor emerges from the interaction between individuals

• younger individuals caring for the brood and maintaining the nest, and older ones venturing outside to bring back nest materials or forage

• Leaf-cutter ant colonies can contain more than 8 million individuals

• workers differ dramatically in size: In some species, the largest workers, responsible for defending the nest, may be 300 times heavier than the smallest ones, which care for the brood

• the clonal raider ant

• This ant reproduces asexually, so all individuals are nearly genetically identical. All can reproduce, which they do at the same time around once a month

• herding and milking aphids or cultivating fungus, behaviors that are especially intriguing to us humans because we similarly cooperate with many species, from crops to livestock to pets

• more socially experienced cichlids are more socially adept, though not necessarily more likely to help

• Princess of Lake Tanganyika cichlid, a social fish species living in stable family groups

• always have a male and a female breeder, and then there are many smaller fish that don’t lay eggs but help to care for the brood

• Cichlids that had started life as part of a social group were less likely to help out, but more likely to make the “submissive quiver,” a rapid vibration of the tail that is a sign of submission to the dominant, breeding individuals. This helped them stay out of trouble but probably didn’t contribute much, if anything, to the group’s success

• cleaning the eggs

• allowed to join a family group at the age of 10 months, cichlids that had spent the first two months of their lives in the absence of adults

• Fish kept with fish smaller than themselves tend to grow faster and behave more dominantly, while ones kept with larger fish grow more slowly than they would otherwise

• fish of different sizes gravitate toward different roles

• Cichlids continue to grow throughout their lives