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The Influence of Demography, Development and Death on Seasonal Labor Allocation in the Florida Harvester Ant (Pogonomyrmex Badius) Christina L

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The Influence of Demography, Development and Death on Seasonal Labor Allocation in the Florida Harvester Ant (Pogonomyrmex Badius) Christina L Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2014 The Influence of Demography, Development and Death on Seasonal Labor Allocation in the Florida Harvester Ant (Pogonomyrmex Badius) Christina L. Kwapich Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES THE INFLUENCE OF DEMOGRAPHY, DEVELOPMENT AND DEATH ON SEASONAL LABOR ALLOCATION IN THE FLORIDA HARVESTER ANT (POGONOMYRMEX BADIUS) By CHRISTINA L. KWAPICH A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Biological Science in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2014 Christina L. Kwapich defended this dissertation on October 2, 2014 The members of the supervisory committee were: Walter R. Tschinkel Professor Directing Dissertation Frederick R. Davis University Representative Emily H. DuVal Committee Member Lisa C. Lyons Committee Member Jeanette L. Wulff Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the dissertation has been approved in accordance with university requirements. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Above all, I would like to thank my most treasured teacher and mentor, Walter Tschinkel. For each day spent together in the sandhills or over a cup of coffee, I count myself lucky. From identifying, dissecting, drawing and extracting fat from small creatures, to digging a square hole and crafting a sturdy table, I am better because of the countless techniques and concepts you taught me. I am also grateful for the silent things you imparted by example.You are a scientist, person and friend worth emulating, and it was an honor to be your final graduate student. I would also like to thank my committee members, Fritz Davis, Emily DuVal, Lisa Lyons and Janie Wulff, who encouraged me to see societies at other scales and the parallel lives of ants, patiently taught me a number of topics and how to teach, offered praise and insight from other disciplines, and inspired a fondness and reverence for the history of my field. I am indebted to my undergraduate advisor Susan C. Jones for her many years of support and kindness and to John Wenzel, for his mentorship and wisdom in matching me with my major professor. I would also like to recognize Josh King, Nicky Gallagher, Christine Johnson, Sean Collins, Joan Her- bers, George Keeney, Mark Gurevich, Laura Chisholm and Mark Deering. Each has been a friend to me. I am thankful for the funding I received from the National Science Foundation including the Integrated Training in Biology and Society grant, Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant (number IOS-1311473), and an RA through Walter Tschinkel’s grant (number IOS-1021632). The Department of Biological Science at FSU also offered funding, support and comfort during my stay. Virginia Carter, Jen Kennedy, Judy Bowers and Ben Miller each made me feel at home. My lab mate, Tyler Murdock, also provided 6 years of assistance, companionship and scientific discourse beneath the pines. Nicholas Hanley also cheerfully recaptured ants with me for many hours. I am grateful for the friendship of my cohort-mates, Bonnie Garcia, Caroline Stahala and Anna Strimaitis; Andrew Merwin and my other Pancrustacean colleagues, my fellowship-mates, Martha Lang, Abe Gibson and Chelse Prather; and for EERDG and SB2013. I am indebted to my family. When I was five, my mother filled a green binder with pa- per, drew a lady bug on the front and told me to take good field notes. She went on to find me every book on ants ever written and tolerated the poorly hidden menagerie I kept in my room and the dollhouse that she built for me. Sensing my deepest hopes, my father bought me my first mi- croscope, which I used to visit many alien worlds. He also drove me to my favorite Cremato- gaster nest each Sunday, and urged me to dump an entire serving of French toast on top. He has been a patron of the ants for more than 20 years now and I would not be here without his loving support. My sister has been my best friend and most ardent fan (despite the tennis court inci- dent). Her imagination, cleverness, and constant companionship remind me what it’s all about. Above all she imparted a set of study habits that obviously work. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables ...................................................................................................................................v List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... vii Abstract ........................................................................................................................................ viii 1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................1 2. DEMOGRAPHY, DEMAND AND DEATH .........................................................................4 2.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................4 2.2 Methods..........................................................................................................................6 2.3 Results ..........................................................................................................................12 2.4 Discussion ....................................................................................................................24 3. LONGEVITY AND SOCIAL INHIBITION OF FORAGING ............................................31 3.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................31 3.2 Methods........................................................................................................................33 3.3 Results ..........................................................................................................................39 3.4 Discussion ....................................................................................................................51 4. CONCLUSION .....................................................................................................................56 4.1 The value of field studies .............................................................................................56 4.2 In support of the superorganism ..................................................................................57 4.3 The annual cycle of a Florida harvester ant colony .....................................................58 REFERENCES ..............................................................................................................................61 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .........................................................................................................67 iv LIST OF TABLES 2.1 Important dates and events related to foraging across the annual cycle from 2009-2012. .........................................................................................................................30 3.1 Results for quasibinomial Generalized Linear Models for the effect of range-limitation on forager survival in wild colonies .......................................................................................41 3.2 Results for quasibinomial Generalized Linear Models of the effect of season on survival. .........................................................................................................................41 v LIST OF FIGURES 2.1 (a) A wire-marked P. badius forager. ..............................................................................10 2.2 Foragers were always found in near-surface chambers. ....................................................13 2.3 Foraging began in March or April of each focal year, reaching a proportional maximum between May and June before declining to 0%, prior to overwintering. ..........................14 2.4 Foraging began in early spring and reached a proportional maximum in early summer, before declining to zero in late autumn. ..............................................................15 2.5 The ratio of foragers to larvae (1.6 to 1) is not significantly related to date between May and mid-October of each year despite a dramatic change in the proportion of the colony allocated to foraging (gray, dotted curve and right Y-axis) ...................................16 2.6 The proportion foragers and larvae (as a fraction of all colony members) change in paral- . lel, so that their ratio is constant from May to October. ...................................................17 2.7 At the time of excavation, workers of each cuticle-color category were marked with a different colored wire belt. .................................................................................................19 2.8 The mean proportion of each colony represented by larvae, pupae, callows, middle or dark workers at four points during the annual cycle, averaged across years (means with standard error bars).. ......................................................................................20 2.9 For each focal colony, forager number on each sample date was divided the May’s estimate to obtain a factor of change in forager number (means with standard error bars)....................................................................................................................................21
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