Developmental Instability in Incipient Colonies of Social Insects

Social insect colonies can provide homeostatic conditions that buffer the incidence of environmental fluctuations on individuals, which have contributed to their ecological success. Coptotermes (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae) is a highly invasive termite genus and several species have important economic...

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Main Authors:	Chouvenc, Thomas, Basille, Mathieu, Li, Hou-Feng, Su, Nan-Yao
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Public Library of Science 2014
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4244189/

id	pubmed-4244189
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-42441892014-12-05 Developmental Instability in Incipient Colonies of Social Insects Chouvenc, Thomas Basille, Mathieu Li, Hou-Feng Su, Nan-Yao Research Article Social insect colonies can provide homeostatic conditions that buffer the incidence of environmental fluctuations on individuals, which have contributed to their ecological success. Coptotermes (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae) is a highly invasive termite genus and several species have important economic impact in many areas of the world. Mature Coptotermes colonies with millions of individuals can provide optimal environmental condition and nurturing capacity for the developing brood. However, it was previously suggested that contrary to mature colonies, incipient colonies may be exposed to critical stress, which may explain for the low success rate of establishment within the first year of the life of a termite colony. We here investigated the stress imposed on individuals of incipient colonies by comparing the developmental instability of individuals between incipient and mature colonies of two Coptotermes species, C. formosanus Shiraki and C. gestroi (Wasmann). We assessed the developmental instability by measuring the asymmetry of morphological traits from the head capsule of the soldier caste. Soldiers from incipient colonies of both species displayed strong asymmetrical traits in comparison to soldiers from mature colonies. We suggest that homeostatic conditions for optimal development are reached as the colony matures, and confirmed that the incipient colony remains a critical bottleneck where individuals are exposed to high developmental stress. Public Library of Science 2014-11-25 /pmc/articles/PMC4244189/ /pubmed/25423502 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0113949 Text en © 2014 Chouvenc et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Chouvenc, Thomas Basille, Mathieu Li, Hou-Feng Su, Nan-Yao
spellingShingle	Chouvenc, Thomas Basille, Mathieu Li, Hou-Feng Su, Nan-Yao Developmental Instability in Incipient Colonies of Social Insects
author_facet	Chouvenc, Thomas Basille, Mathieu Li, Hou-Feng Su, Nan-Yao
author_sort	Chouvenc, Thomas
title	Developmental Instability in Incipient Colonies of Social Insects
title_short	Developmental Instability in Incipient Colonies of Social Insects
title_full	Developmental Instability in Incipient Colonies of Social Insects
title_fullStr	Developmental Instability in Incipient Colonies of Social Insects
title_full_unstemmed	Developmental Instability in Incipient Colonies of Social Insects
title_sort	developmental instability in incipient colonies of social insects
description	Social insect colonies can provide homeostatic conditions that buffer the incidence of environmental fluctuations on individuals, which have contributed to their ecological success. Coptotermes (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae) is a highly invasive termite genus and several species have important economic impact in many areas of the world. Mature Coptotermes colonies with millions of individuals can provide optimal environmental condition and nurturing capacity for the developing brood. However, it was previously suggested that contrary to mature colonies, incipient colonies may be exposed to critical stress, which may explain for the low success rate of establishment within the first year of the life of a termite colony. We here investigated the stress imposed on individuals of incipient colonies by comparing the developmental instability of individuals between incipient and mature colonies of two Coptotermes species, C. formosanus Shiraki and C. gestroi (Wasmann). We assessed the developmental instability by measuring the asymmetry of morphological traits from the head capsule of the soldier caste. Soldiers from incipient colonies of both species displayed strong asymmetrical traits in comparison to soldiers from mature colonies. We suggest that homeostatic conditions for optimal development are reached as the colony matures, and confirmed that the incipient colony remains a critical bottleneck where individuals are exposed to high developmental stress.
publisher	Public Library of Science
publishDate	2014
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4244189/
_version_	1613160826160545792

Developmental Instability in Incipient Colonies of Social Insects

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