ABSTRACT
Division of labor among norphological and/or age classes is ubiquitous in social insects. The known-age ants differed with respect to whether a behavior was performed and in the proportionate frequency of particular behavior pairs. Data from the 68 inside and outside workers showed that, among workers from each locale, some individuals performed no task behaviors. In addition, there were significant differences by group in behavior pair occurrences; task behaviors tended to be clumped temporally; and brood care behavior occurred in clusters by brood class. Same-age individual ant workers differed significantly with respect to proportionate frequencies of both behaviors and behavior pairs, as well as with respect to whether and at what age they perform particular behaviors. Inspection of all the data suggests several roles for minor workers, based on the Oster and Wilson definition of role as "sets of behaviors linked together by relatively high transition probabilities".
