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Soldier (biology)

A soldier is a caste in several social species. They are particularly common in eusocial species such as ants, termites, and aphids. Soldiers are notable for their differences in morphology compared to other members of their shared species.

Morphology

Eusocial insects are able to expend more resources to create physical extremes in their soldiers.^[1] Ants (like Pheidole) and termites species create soldiers with very large heads. Eusocial species that need to fly, such as wasps and bees, do not create soldiers to this extent; they are limited by their need to fly.^[2]]

Functions

Examples

Ants

Termites

Nearly all termite species have evolved soldiers.^[3] However, some genera of soldierless termites exist.^[4]

Nasutitermes

References

^ Oster, George F. (1978). Caste and ecology in the social insects. Wilson, Edward O. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691082103. OCLC 3932944.
^ Insect behavior : from mechanisms to ecological and evolutionary consequences. Córdoba-Aguilar, Alex,, González-Tokman, Daniel,, González-Santoyo, Isaac, (First edition ed.). Oxford. ISBN 9780191838842. OCLC 1045426359. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
^ Tian, Li; Zhou, Xuguo (2014). "The Soldiers in Societies: Defense, Regulation, and Evolution". International Journal of Biological Sciences. 10 (3): 296–308. doi:10.7150/ijbs.6847. ISSN 1449-2288.
^ Constantini, Joice P.; Carrijo, Tiago Fernandes; Palma-Onetto, Valeria; Scheffrahn, Rudolf; Carnohan, Lucas Paul; Šobotník, Jan; Cancello, Eliana M. (2018-12-13). "Tonsuritermes, a new soldierless termite genus and two new species from South America (Blattaria: Isoptera: Termitidae: Apicotermitinae)". Zootaxa. 4531 (3): 383. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4531.3.4. ISSN 1175-5334.

[1] Oster, George F. (1978). Caste and ecology in the social insects. Wilson, Edward O. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691082103. OCLC 3932944.

[2] Insect behavior : from mechanisms to ecological and evolutionary consequences. Córdoba-Aguilar, Alex,, González-Tokman, Daniel,, González-Santoyo, Isaac, (First edition ed.). Oxford. ISBN 9780191838842. OCLC 1045426359. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: others (link)

[3] Tian, Li; Zhou, Xuguo (2014). "The Soldiers in Societies: Defense, Regulation, and Evolution". International Journal of Biological Sciences. 10 (3): 296–308. doi:10.7150/ijbs.6847. ISSN 1449-2288.

[4] Constantini, Joice P.; Carrijo, Tiago Fernandes; Palma-Onetto, Valeria; Scheffrahn, Rudolf; Carnohan, Lucas Paul; Šobotník, Jan; Cancello, Eliana M. (2018-12-13). "Tonsuritermes, a new soldierless termite genus and two new species from South America (Blattaria: Isoptera: Termitidae: Apicotermitinae)". Zootaxa. 4531 (3): 383. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4531.3.4. ISSN 1175-5334.

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