Animal personalities or behavioural syndromes are consistent and/or correlated behaviours
across two or more situations within a population. Social insect biologists have measured …

Highlights•We outline the concept of keystone individuals.•Keystones are defined as having
a disproportionally large effect on groups.•Keystones can occupy a diverse array of …

Comprising a substantial part of living biomass on earth, ants are integral to the functioning
of terrestrial ecosystems. More than 12,000 species have been described to date, and it is …

Division of labor is a complex phenomenon observed throughout nature. Theoretical studies
have focused either on its emergence through self-organization mechanisms or on its …

Many insects and arthropods live in colonies or aggregations of varying size. Group size
may affect collective organization either because the same individual behavior has different …

The ecological success of social insects is often attributed to an increase in efficiency
achieved through division of labor between workers in a colony. Much research has …

Social insect societies are characterized not only by a reproductive division of labor between
the queen and workers but also by a specialization of workers on different tasks. However …

Honey bee foragers must supply their colony with a balance of pollen and nectar to sustain
optimal colony development. Inter-individual behavioural variability among foragers is …

How social insect colonies behave results from the actions of their workers. Individual
variation among workers in their response to various tasks is necessary for the division of …

Size has profound consequences for the structure and function of biological systems, across
levels of organization from cells to social groups. As tightly integrated units that vary greatly …