Submitted by Automa??o e Estat?stica (sst@bczm.ufrn.br) on 2017-03-28T19:46:50Z No. of bitstreams: 1 IngridAraujoDeMedeiros_TESE.pdf: 3685409 bytes, checksum: 490dfe91e4e489371befc4164fbda580 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Arlan Eloi Leite Silva (eloihistoriador@yahoo.com.br) on 2017-03-29T22:39:45Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 IngridAraujoDeMedeiros_TESE.pdf: 3685409 bytes, checksum: 490dfe91e4e489371befc4164fbda580 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-03-29T22:39:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 IngridAraujoDeMedeiros_TESE.pdf: 3685409 bytes, checksum: 490dfe91e4e489371befc4164fbda580 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-05-06 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient?fico e Tecnol?gico (CNPq) / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior (CAPES) / Em insetos sociais, a divis?o de trabalho ? uma caracter?stica marcante, ? apontada como a chave para o sucesso ecol?gico desse grupo de insetos. Esse processo envolve uma grande quest?o: como oper?rias, cognitivamente simples, podem coordenar eficientemente o desempenho de tarefas que ocorrem em paralelo com outras oper?rias ou grupos de oper?rias? Para contribuir na elucida??o dessa quest?o, examinamos a distribui??o de tarefas em col?nias da formiga Dinoponera quadriceps. O estudo foi realizado no Laborat?rio de Biologia Comportamental na UFRN. Em todas as observa??es e experimentos, as formigas foram marcadas, individualmente, com uma etiqueta alfanum?rica colada no t?rax. Para todos os experimentos o m?todo de observa??o utilizado foi o focal instant?neo, com registros a cada quinze minutos para cada indiv?duo. Para testar a influ?ncia da idade, na primeira parte do estudo, observamos tr?s vezes por semana, quatro col?nias ao longo de oito meses com duas horas por dia de observa??o para cada col?nia. Encontramos que indiv?duos jovens realizam mais tarefas dentro do ninho e t?m como tarefa principal o cuidado com imaturos; assim D. quadriceps atende ao polietismo temporal. Na segunda parte, investigamos se as oper?rias eram comportamentalmente flex?veis, sendo capazes de responder eficientemente diante de uma situa??o de estresse. Para isso, utilizamos tr?s col?nias em duas condi??es: (1) as forrageadoras eram removidas e (2) as cuidadoras eram removidas. Cada condi??o teve dura??o de nove dias, com duas horas de observa??o por dia para cada col?nia. Como resultado, para suprir a demanda da col?nia, as oper?rias foram capazes de realocar-se para as tarefas que a col?nia estava necessitando, cuidado e forrageio. Na terceira e ?ltima parte do estudo, testamos se existe varia??o da massa corporal entre as oper?rias. Durante cinco meses seguidos quatro col?nias foram observadas uma vez ao m?s por um per?odo de uma hora. No dia seguinte a cada observa??o, todas as oper?rias eram removidas do ninho e pesadas. Nossos dados mostraram que a massa corporal dos indiv?duos que permanecem engajados em atividades internas ao ninho ? maior, ou seja, s?o mais pesados quando comparadas com aqueles indiv?duos que realizam tarefas intermedi?rias e essas s?o mais pesadas que as forrageadoras. Assim, massa corporal e idade s?o moduladores da aloca??o de tarefas em D. quadriceps, e a flexibilidade nessas col?nias as tornam aptas a distribuir suas atividades de acordo com a demanda da col?nia. / In social insects, the division of labor is a hallmark, being considered the key for the ecological success of them. This process raises an important question: how can ant workers, with their simple cognitive system, coordinate efficiently the tasks performed by other workers or even by different group of workers. Aiming to clarify this question, we observed the task allocation in colonies of Dinoponera quadriceps. The study was carried out in the Behavioral Biology Lab, at UFRN. In all observations and experiments, workers were individually marked with an alphanumeric tag glued in the thorax. We used instantaneous focal method to observe the colonies, registering activities of each worker every 15 minutes. In the first part of the study we investigate the effect of age on the division of labor. We observed four colonies during eight months. Each colony was observed two hours a day, three times a week. We found that young individuals perform more nest work, and also have as the main task the immature care. Thus, D. quadriceps serves a temporal polyethism flexible model. In the second part of the study, we investigated whether the workers have behavioral flexibility, being capable of responding efficiently to a disturbance. To answer this question, it was used three colonies in two different conditions: (1) foragers were removed and (2) nurse were removed. Each condition last for nine days, and colonies were observed two hours during these nine days. As a result, colonies were capable of allocating nestmates to the task that demanded more workers due to the removal, either foraging or nursing. In the third and last part of the study, we tested the effect of the workers? weight on the task allocation. During five consecutive months four colonies were observed once a month for one hour. The next day after the observation, we removed all workers and weighted them. Our data suggest that workers that perform nest work are heavier than foragers and individuals that forage and do nest work. Our data suggest that the body weight of individuals remain engaged in activities internal to the nest is larger, they are heavier compared to those individuals that carry out these tasks and intermediate are heavier than foragers. Thus, body weight and age are modulators of task allocation in D. quadriceps, and flexibility in these colonies make them able to distribute their activities according to the demand of the colony.