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Social nest structure of sweat bee Lasioglossum marginatum (Anthophila: Halictidae)
Vinická, Eliška ; Straka, Jakub (advisor) ; Bogusch, Petr (referee)
Family Halictidae is one of the most socially diverse taxa of bees, and especially one of the genera that belongs in this family. It is the genus Lasioglossum, which includes different types of sociality from solitary behavior to eusociality. Among the species of this genus, one stands out and that is the species Lasioglossum marginatum. Its social behaviour was described in the years 1959-1972 by Plateux-Quén in France. Its sociality is eusocial and is completely unique. In its nests there are dozens to hundrets of individuals, all of which are produced by a single queen. The life cycle of this species is not one-year, as in most species, but is spread over 5(6) years and the queen survives the entire time. It is a univoltine species and therefore produces only one generation of offspring per year. This is not unusual, except that eusocial species in this family are always at least bivoltine with a one-year social cycle. In each year of the five-year cycle, the queen produces only workers. Only in the last year of the cycle are future foudresses and males produced. The purpose of this work is to confirm or disprove Plateux-Quénu's statements. Field experiments were performed from 2020 to 2023 in the Kletnice nature reserve in South Moravia. A total of 354 nests were excavated, and their nest...
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Of ants and men. Myrmecological inspirations of anthropology in the work of V. J. A. Novák (1919-1997)
Hampl, Petr ; Stella, Marco (advisor) ; Hermann, Tomáš (referee)
The work presents life and work of Vladimir Jan Amos Novak, it shows his main thoughts unified by the principle of sociogenesis and points at its inspiration in older traditions of german and russian biology. It also concerns his anthropology as related to the principle of sociogenesis and shows some peculiar Novak's contributions, mainly his opinions on progessive neotenization of man and evolutionary tedency for association. It grasps the principle of sociogenesis as a biological and also a political concept and therefore shows its very political consequences presented mainly on his social thoughts. The work also deals with the relations between eastern and western science on Novák's efforts to unify all sciences under one universal evolutionary framework regardless its geographical belonging. Throughout the work is Novak shown in the context of man-animal relations and the principle of sociogenesis as arising from myrmecological studies. There are therefore presented anthropological works of three important myrmecologists A. Forel, W.M. Wheeler and E.O. Wilson as inspired in the study of ants.
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Specific behaviour of soldiers towards reproductives of termite genus Prorhinotermes (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae).
Dolejšová, Klára ; Šobotník, Jan (advisor) ; Klimeš, Petr (referee)
Soldier caste is the oldest altruistic caste in termites, highly specialized for defensive tasks. Therefore, a number of adaptations in anatomy and behaviour can be observed in soldier, lacking in other termite castes. The aim of this study was to verify the hypothesis that in disturbed groups the soldiers will prefer to stand by and defend the reproductives, the most valuable individuals. Therefore, I studied in two species of the genus Prorhinotermes (P. simplex and P. canalifrons) the ability of soldiers to discriminate neotenic reproductives and provide them with defence. In agreement with the initial hypothesis, the soldiers of both species prooved to be able of an instantaneous recognition of reproductives and remained close to them. In P. simplex, the neotenic female was the most attractive individual, while in P. canalifrons, neotenics of both sexes were equally attractive. The observed preference of reproductives appears to occur only with a certain age of the reproductives in incipient colonies, along with their sexual maturation. Caste specificity of cuticular lipids supports the presumption that the caste recognition is based on olphactoric cues in the cuticle of reproductives.
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Signs of the Origin and Evolution of Eusociality in Hymenoptera on Genomic Level
Fraňková, Tereza ; Straka, Jakub (advisor) ; Musilová, Zuzana (referee)
Eusociality has evolved independently many times in social Hymenoptera and some of them are now at the brink of eusociality. Eusociality is a complicated set of genomic, ecological and behavioural traits closely interacting with each other. Recent studies presented many interesting outcomes which explain at least partially the possible connections to eusociality on the genomic level. However, the true origin and evolution of eusociality is yet to be refined. Because eusociality is such a dominant quality in the lives of eusocial Hymenoptera, it is important to clarify what causes eusociality to arrise. This thesis summarises the most prominent findings in the field of genomics and reviews not only the outcomes but also the issues of this problematics. The thesis deals with the classification of eusociality, brief introduction to the species lifestyles, which are of great importance for understanding the main part. The main part focuses on the concrete genomic data elucidating possible signs of the evolution of eusociality recognised so far. Key words: eusociality, genomics, evolution, Hymenoptera, Insecta
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Cyclic development of social communities in insects
Mikát, Michael ; Straka, Jakub (advisor) ; Zrzavý, Jan (referee)
A lot of animal species forms societies - groups of regularly interacting individuals. Societies vary in social structure and relations among their members. Societies with reproductive division of labour are the most complex. Origin of reproductive division of labour is one of main themes of evolutionary biology. In this thesis classification of societies according actual composition is summarized and modified. Societies very changed during colony cycle in taxons which forms eusocial levels societies. For these taxons is describing of society cycle very valuable for comprehension of social strategy. In this thesis cycles of societies are classified and selection pressures which may change society cycle are summarized.
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Specific behaviour of soldiers towards reproductives of termite genus Prorhinotermes (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae).
Dolejšová, Klára ; Šobotník, Jan (advisor) ; Klimeš, Petr (referee)
Soldier caste is the oldest altruistic caste in termites, highly specialized for defensive tasks. Therefore, a number of adaptations in anatomy and behaviour can be observed in soldier, lacking in other termite castes. The aim of this study was to verify the hypothesis that in disturbed groups the soldiers will prefer to stand by and defend the reproductives, the most valuable individuals. Therefore, I studied in two species of the genus Prorhinotermes (P. simplex and P. canalifrons) the ability of soldiers to discriminate neotenic reproductives and provide them with defence. In agreement with the initial hypothesis, the soldiers of both species prooved to be able of an instantaneous recognition of reproductives and remained close to them. In P. simplex, the neotenic female was the most attractive individual, while in P. canalifrons, neotenics of both sexes were equally attractive. The observed preference of reproductives appears to occur only with a certain age of the reproductives in incipient colonies, along with their sexual maturation. Caste specificity of cuticular lipids supports the presumption that the caste recognition is based on olphactoric cues in the cuticle of reproductives.
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Of ants and men. Myrmecological inspirations of anthropology in the work of V. J. A. Novák (1919-1997)
Hampl, Petr ; Stella, Marco (advisor) ; Hermann, Tomáš (referee)
The work presents life and work of Vladimir Jan Amos Novak, it shows his main thoughts unified by the principle of sociogenesis and points at its inspiration in older traditions of german and russian biology. It also concerns his anthropology as related to the principle of sociogenesis and shows some peculiar Novak's contributions, mainly his opinions on progessive neotenization of man and evolutionary tedency for association. It grasps the principle of sociogenesis as a biological and also a political concept and therefore shows its very political consequences presented mainly on his social thoughts. The work also deals with the relations between eastern and western science on Novák's efforts to unify all sciences under one universal evolutionary framework regardless its geographical belonging. Throughout the work is Novak shown in the context of man-animal relations and the principle of sociogenesis as arising from myrmecological studies. There are therefore presented anthropological works of three important myrmecologists A. Forel, W.M. Wheeler and E.O. Wilson as inspired in the study of ants.
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Dělba práce a polyethismus v koloniích sociálních rypošů
ENGLOVÁ, Terezie
Eusocial species of African mole-rats live in groups cooperating on multiple tasks and employing division of labour. In captivity, individuals of the same group were found to differ in cooperative contribution as well as in preference for a particular task which is usually interpretted either as temporal polyethism or existence of behavioural castes. Studies describing these phenomenons based on observations of captive colonies suffer from methodological problems and their results are often contradictory, whereas studies on free-ranging mole-rats are few and limited by small sample sizes. In my thesis I review available literature on polyethism, division of labour and related penomenons in African mole-rats. Its general aim is to provide theoretical background for future laboratory experiments.
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