TY - JOUR
T1 - The sensory arrays of the ant, Temnothorax rugatulus
AU - Ramirez-Esquivel, Fiorella
AU - Leitner, Nicole E.
AU - Zeil, Jochen
AU - Narendra, Ajay
PY - 2017/7
Y1 - 2017/7
N2 - Individual differences in response thresholds to task-related stimuli may be one mechanism driving task allocation among social insect workers. These differences may arise at various stages in the nervous system. We investigate variability in the peripheral nervous system as a simple mechanism that can introduce inter-individual differences in sensory information. In this study we describe size-dependent variation of the compound eyes and the antennae in the ant Temnothorax rugatulus. Head width in T. rugatulus varies between 0.4 and 0.7 mm (2.6-3.8 mm body length). But despite this limited range of worker sizes we find sensory array variability. We find that the number of ommatidia and of some, but not all, antennal sensilla types vary with head width.The antennal array of T. rugatulus displays the full complement of sensillum types observed in other species of ants, although at much lower quantities than other, larger, studied species. In addition, we describe what we believe to be a new type of sensillum in hymenoptera that occurs on the antennae and on all body segments. T. rugatulus has apposition compound eyes with 45-76 facets per eye, depending on head width, with average lens diameters of 16.5 μm, rhabdom diameters of 5.7 μm and inter-ommatidial angles of 16.8°. The optical system of T. rugatulus ommatidia is severely under focussed, but the absolute sensitivity of the eyes is unusually high.We discuss the functional significance of these findings and the extent to which the variability of sensory arrays may correlate with task allocation.
AB - Individual differences in response thresholds to task-related stimuli may be one mechanism driving task allocation among social insect workers. These differences may arise at various stages in the nervous system. We investigate variability in the peripheral nervous system as a simple mechanism that can introduce inter-individual differences in sensory information. In this study we describe size-dependent variation of the compound eyes and the antennae in the ant Temnothorax rugatulus. Head width in T. rugatulus varies between 0.4 and 0.7 mm (2.6-3.8 mm body length). But despite this limited range of worker sizes we find sensory array variability. We find that the number of ommatidia and of some, but not all, antennal sensilla types vary with head width.The antennal array of T. rugatulus displays the full complement of sensillum types observed in other species of ants, although at much lower quantities than other, larger, studied species. In addition, we describe what we believe to be a new type of sensillum in hymenoptera that occurs on the antennae and on all body segments. T. rugatulus has apposition compound eyes with 45-76 facets per eye, depending on head width, with average lens diameters of 16.5 μm, rhabdom diameters of 5.7 μm and inter-ommatidial angles of 16.8°. The optical system of T. rugatulus ommatidia is severely under focussed, but the absolute sensitivity of the eyes is unusually high.We discuss the functional significance of these findings and the extent to which the variability of sensory arrays may correlate with task allocation.
KW - sensilla
KW - compound eyes
KW - intraspecific variation
KW - small sensory arrays
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85017436954&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/CEO561903
UR - http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DE120100019
UR - http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/FT140100221
U2 - 10.1016/j.asd.2017.03.005
DO - 10.1016/j.asd.2017.03.005
M3 - Article
C2 - 28347859
AN - SCOPUS:85017436954
SN - 1467-8039
VL - 46
SP - 552
EP - 563
JO - Arthropod Structure and Development
JF - Arthropod Structure and Development
IS - 4
ER -