Division of labour—individuals specializing in different activities—features prominently in the
spectacular success of the social insects. Until recently, genetic and genomic analyses of …

Recent evidence for genetic effects on royal and worker caste differentiation from diverse
social insect taxa has put an end to the view that these phenotypes stem solely from a …

An organism's phenotype can be influenced by maternal cues and directly perceived
environmental cues, as well as by its genotype at polymorphic loci, which can be interpreted …

Female ants display a wide variety of morphological castes, including workers, soldiers,
ergatoid (worker-like) queens and queens. Alternative caste development within a species …

Polyphenism is the phenomenon in which alternative phenotypes are produced by a single
genotype in response to environmental cues. An extreme case is found in social insects, in …

The evolution of eusociality is a perennial issue in evolutionary biology, and genomic
advances have fueled steadily growing interest in the genetic changes underlying social …

The environment that an offspring experiences during its development can have lifelong
consequences for its morphology, anatomy, physiology and behaviour that are strong …

Recently there has been an explosion of research into the genetics of caste determination,
especially following the discovery of systems where queen-worker caste determination has …

We examined how dietary, social, and genetic factors affect individual size and caste in the
Florida harvester ant Pogonomyrmex badius, which has three discrete female castes. The …

Study of social traits in offspring traditionally reflects on interactions in simple family groups,
with famous examples including parent-offspring conflict and sibling rivalry in birds and …