Hierarchies of clonal ants with and without status signals
Some ant species are "queenless", where many females in a colony are capable of becoming the primary reproducer. In these scenarios, reproductive division of labor is sorted through dominance hierarchies, where only the top ants get to develop their ovaries and lay eggs. Platythyrea punctata is one of these queenless species, but they are parthenogenetic, meaning any female can reproduce asexually. Being clones involved in dominance interactions almost immediately after eclosion, they are capable of forming hierarchies where recognizing individuals or their fertility status (via chemical signals correlated with ovary development) is virtually impossible. I have filmed many groups of these clonal ants in situations where their chemical signals of fertility status are either present or absent. I need a student to view these videos and annotate aggressive actions between ants. From this data, we can observe how hierarchies differ when driven primarily by "internal" information (win-loss effects) versus "external" information (status signals of their opponents). This project can also be about troubleshooting behavior tracking software that will allow us to test new hypotheses with this same dataset.
This opportunity is most useful for students pursuing careers in scientific research. However, this opportunity is very flexible in its difficulty, since the work is mostly watching videos and taking notes. It can be for a freshman exploring their interests in their first research experience, or it can be for a senior who knows how to do machine learning posture tracking and is looking to be a co-author in a publication.