Who needs ‘lazy’ workers? Inactive workers act as a ‘reserve’ labor force replacing active workers, but inactive workers are not replaced when they are removed

Daniel Charbonneau; Takao Sasaki; Anna Dornhaus

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0184074

Loading metrics

Open Access

Peer-reviewed

Research Article

Who needs ‘lazy’ workers? Inactive workers act as a ‘reserve’ labor force replacing active workers, but inactive workers are not replaced when they are removed

Daniel Charbonneau ,

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

* E-mail: charbonneau.daniel@gmail.com

Affiliation Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Entomology & Insect Science, University of Arizona, Biological Sciences West, 1041 East Lowell, Tucson, AZ, United States of America

http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9537-4763

⨯
Takao Sasaki,

Roles Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
⨯
Anna Dornhaus

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States of America
⨯

Who needs ‘lazy’ workers? Inactive workers act as a ‘reserve’ labor force replacing active workers, but inactive workers are not replaced when they are removed

Daniel Charbonneau,
Takao Sasaki,
Anna Dornhaus

Published: September 6, 2017
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0184074

About the Authors

Daniel Charbonneau

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

* E-mail: charbonneau.daniel@gmail.com

Affiliation Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Entomology & Insect Science, University of Arizona, Biological Sciences West, 1041 East Lowell, Tucson, AZ, United States of America

http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9537-4763

Takao Sasaki

Roles Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

Anna Dornhaus

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Subject Areas
?

For more information about PLOS Subject Areas, click here.
We want your feedback. Do these Subject Areas make sense for this article? Click the target next to the incorrect Subject Area and let us know. Thanks for your help!

Social systems
Is the Subject Area "Social systems" applicable to this article?

Thanks for your feedback.
Animal sociality
Is the Subject Area "Animal sociality" applicable to this article?

Thanks for your feedback.
Insects
Is the Subject Area "Insects" applicable to this article?

Thanks for your feedback.
Ants
Is the Subject Area "Ants" applicable to this article?

Thanks for your feedback.
Honey bees
Is the Subject Area "Honey bees" applicable to this article?

Thanks for your feedback.
Foraging
Is the Subject Area "Foraging" applicable to this article?

Thanks for your feedback.
Complex systems
Is the Subject Area "Complex systems" applicable to this article?

Thanks for your feedback.
Computer networks
Is the Subject Area "Computer networks" applicable to this article?

Thanks for your feedback.