Division of labour and 'foraging for work': simulating reality versus the reality of simulations

Abstract

[Extract] Division of labour by worker age is one of the most prominent and widespread features of colony organization in the social insects. Tofts & Franks (1992) and Tofts (1993) proposed through simulations that a simple algorithm ('foraging for work') serves as a general model for understanding task allocation in eusocial animals ranging from ants and bees to naked mole-rats. They claimed that a correlation between worker age and tasks can arise from a set of simple behavioural rules in combination with a spatial organization of tasks within the nest, without any mechanism that causally links worker age and behaviour. Temporal polyethism emerges as a by-product of individual rules; ultimately they question whether age polyethism is itself 'a myth' (Franks 1994, page 238).