Table by E O Wilson that shows how as worker ants age they take on different jobs around their nest— first working with eggs and the queen then with other ants then last they forage.
@futurebird is that because they are more mature and capable of those complex tasks, or because they are more expendable due to advanced age, like the Fukushima 50 volunteers?
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@DaveMWilburn @futurebird I've read (somewhere, who knows when) it's the latter. I'm surprised that excavating falls to the older workers, though. Maybe digging is more dangerous than I'd have thought?
@bigpEE @DaveMWilburn I think a primary concern isn’t just danger but also exposure to outside germs and pathogens. The younger workers create a protective sterile envelope for the queen and eggs. Jobs that expose ants to the outside mean they may not go deep into the nest anymore to keep outside germs from the reproductive core of the colony.