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Summary: Summary. Ratnieks and Anderson (1999) recently reviewed
task partitioning in insect societies. They collated numerous
examples of partitioned tasks involving the collection and
transportation of colony resources to the nest. However, no
non-foraging examples were known. Here we report task
partitioning in excavation, emigration, and refuse disposal.
We also report an example of task partitioning without strong
division of labour.
Key words: Task partitioning, excavation, emigration, refuse
disposal.
Recently, Ratnieks andAnderson (1999) reviewed the pheno-
menon of task partitioning (TP) in insect societies. A task
is said to be partitioned when it is split into a number of
sequential stages or subtasks such as forage collection
and transportation and work is passed from one worker
to another (Jeanne, 1986a; Ratnieks and Anderson, 1999).
Ratnieks and Anderson (1999) cited many examples of TP
in the collection and use of colony resources. However, no
examples from other aspects of colony life were known. Here
we fill this important gap by detailing examples of TP in
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