Macroevolutionary integration of phenotypes within and across ant worker castes

Abstract

Phenotypic traits are often integrated into evolutionary modules: sets of organismal parts that evolve together. In social insect colonies, the concepts of integration and modularity apply to sets of traits both within and among functionally and phenotypically differentiated castes. On macroevolutionary timescales, patterns of integration and modularity within and across castes can be clues to the selective and ecological factors shaping their evolution and diversification. We develop a set of hypotheses describing contrasting patterns of worker integration and apply this framework in a broad (246 species) comparative analysis of major and minor worker evolution in the hyperdiverse ant genus Pheidole. Using geometric morphometrics in a phylogenetic framework, we inferred fast and tightly integrated evolution of mesosoma shape between major and minor workers, but slower and more independent evolution of head shape between the two worker castes. Thus, Pheidole workers are evolving as a mixture of intracaste and intercaste integration and rate heterogeneity. The decoupling of homologous traits across worker castes may represent an important process facilitating the rise of social complexity.Here, we test the extent to which morphological traits in different social insect worker castes should exhibit integration and modularity. We used geometric morphometric data on major and minor workers’ head and thorax shape from 246 species in a phylogenetic comparative analysis of evolutionary integration and rate. Our results show that thorax shape evolved in a rapid and tightly integrated fashion, whereas head shape evolved slower and more independently.