Behavioural Variability, Brain Plasticity and Division of Labour in Social Insects – BePlacid

Sociality is found across all lineages and represents one major evolutionary transition. The most complex forms of sociality are found in eusocial species where queens and workers are committed for life to different castes. Little is still known on the physiological and behavioural mechanisms driving social transitions and underlying the expression of distinct social phenotypes. We hypothesize that the decoupling between reproductive and non-reproductive activities in eusocial species was accompanied by a reduced need for behavioural flexibility supported by a lower expression of brain plasticity. We will work on bees because the large diversity of their social structures is relevant to launch comparative studies across species differing in social complexity. We propose to bring together our complementary expertise, spanning from neurobiology to ethology under an evolutionary perspective to explore the link between brain structure, behavioural plasticity and sociality.