PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Kaitlin M. Baudier
AU  - Meghan M. Bennett
AU  - Meghan Barrett
AU  - Frank J. Cossio
AU  - Robert D. Wu
AU  - Sean O’Donnell
AU  - Theodore P. Pavlic
AU  - Jennifer H. Fewell
TI  - Soldier neural architecture is temporarily modality-specialized but poorly predicted by repertoire size in the stingless bee <em>Tetragonisca angustula</em>
AID  - 10.1101/2021.08.15.456373
DP  - 2021 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2021.08.15.456373
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/08/15/2021.08.15.456373.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/08/15/2021.08.15.456373.full
AB  - Individual heterogeneity within societies provides opportunities to test hypotheses about adaptive neural investment in the context of group cooperation. Here we explore neural investment in defense specialist soldiers of the eusocial stingless bee (Tetragonisca angustula) which are age sub-specialized on distinct defense tasks, and have an overall higher lifetime task repertoire than other sterile workers within the colony. Consistent with predicted behavioral demands, soldiers had higher relative visual (optic lobe) investment than non-soldiers but only during the period when they were performing the most visually demanding defense task (hovering guarding). As soldiers aged into the less visually demanding task of standing guarding this difference disappeared. Neural investment was otherwise similar across all colony members. Despite having larger task repertoires, soldiers had similar absolute brain size and smaller relative brain size compared to other workers, meaning that lifetime task repertoire size was a poor predictor of brain size. Together, our results are consistent with the specialized but flexible defense strategies of this species, broadening our understanding of how neurobiology mediates age and morphological task specialization in highly cooperative societies.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.