Development of colony phenotype in social insects controlled by frequency-dependent thresholds among workers

The frequency of workers adopting different behaviours often depends on thr esholds. If too few workers are foraging, for example, then those workers w ith relatively low foraging thresholds begin to collect food. The regulatio n of colony phenotype is controlled by frequency-dependent feedback among w orker threshold values. I show that, for a given average threshold value am ong workers, variability in thresholds influences the frequency of workers that adopt a particular behaviour. This conclusion applies whenever the ten dency of a developmental unit to adopt a particular phenotype depends on th e frequency of other units with that phenotype. Social insects are unusual, however, because the distribution of thresholds among developmental units (workers) depends on the number of times the queen has mated.