http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2014.10.009 0003-3472/© 2014 The Authors. Published on behalf o SA license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-n How a colony regulates the division of labour to forage for nutritional resources while accommodating for size and demographic composition is a fundamental question in the sociobiology of social insects. In honeybees, Apis mellifera, young and ...

Comparative sociogenomics has the potential to provide important insights into how social behaviour evolved. We examined brain gene expression profiles of the primitively eusocial wasp Polistes metricus and compared the results with a growing base of brain gene expression information for the advanced eusocial honeybee, Apis mellifera. We studied four female wasp groups that show variation in fo...

Social insects display task-related division of labour. In some species, division of labour is related to differences in body size, and worker caste members display morphological adaptations suited for particular tasks. Bumble-bee workers (Bombus spp.) can vary in mass by eight- to tenfold within a single colony, which previous work has linked to division of labour. However, little is known abo...

The success of social insects can be largely attributed to division of labour. In contrast to most social insects, many species with simple societies contain workers which are capable of sexual reproduction. Headed by one or a few reproductive individuals, subordinate workers form a dominance hierarchy, queuing to attain the reproductive role. In these species task allocation may be influenced ...

Silkworm raising and silk processing were conventionally regarded as women’s work in agricultural practices ancient China, while contemporary gender division of labour this field maintains stereotype witnesses more nuanced inequality domestic institutional settings. Meanwhile, although silkworms the sericultural industry won’t be differentiated by sex except for...