Between specialization and flexibility: how tasks and space shape behavioral profiles in ant colonies

Abstract

Task allocation in eusocial insects has long been studied under the framework of division of labor, implying a relatively rigid association between individuals and tasks. However, most eusocial species lack morphological specialization, and workers regularly switch tasks as colony demands change. This raises a fundamental question: do tasks shape the behavioral profiles of workers, or does individual behavioral variation cut across task boundaries? We addressed this in a controlled laboratory study of Aphaenogaster senilis ants, comparing the behavioral profiles of four task groups (scouts, recruits, nurses, and necrophores) spatially segregated by their location within the colony setup and subsequently tested individually in four ecologically relevant contexts. This multivariate profiling, still rarely applied in ants, revealed that some tasks impose clear behavioral specialization (scouting, brood care), whereas others do not (recruitment, necrophoresis). Critically, this specialization appears in foraging-related tasks, whereas sociality does not: it varies considerably among workers, even within a single task group. Behavioral specialization, therefore, exists, but not across every dimension of behavior, and it is not a fixed property of the task. These results suggest that workers may differ in their readiness to shift roles depending on the task at hand, and this variation may in turn shape how colonies adapt to environmental change. More broadly, our results speak to a question central to collective behavior research well beyond ants: how individual variability translates into functional structure at the group level.