1 research outputs found
Body Size of the Monomorphic Ant Lasius niger
Metal pollution may cause the decrease in the individual body size. In ants, the
morphological diversity within and between colonies may be much higher than that
considered before, even in monomorphic ants. In this study we measured the body size,
expressed as head width, of Lasius niger workers collected from 44 young colonies in their
ergonomic stage along a well-known gradient exhibiting chronic metal pollution. We
calculated statistics describing the body size distribution curve, namely, average, median, data
range, skewness, and kurtosis. None of these statistics correlated with the pollution level.
Contrary to our previous study performed on mature colonies, workers from young colonies
do not display pollution-related morphological changes. The results stress the importance of
developmental stage of colony on diversifying body size of the worker cast, in monomorphic
ants living in metal-polluted areas