Decoupling the cost and benefits of the pace-of-life syndrome in Temnothorax rugatulus

Investigating why individuals show consistent behavioral variation is an encompassing pursuit in the biological sciences, as it is closely correlated to physiological and life-history variances. Significant advances have been made to understand trait covariation utilizing a Pace-of-Life Syndrome (POLS) framework, along with generating predictions about behavioral and physiological traits that are associated with life-history patterns. This trait covariation is additionally associated with potential trade-offs, and thus limiting both physiological, behavioral, and life-history plasticity. Here, we begin to investigate if and/or how multilevel selection in Temnothorax rugatulus ants may result in a de-coupling of the cost and benefits associated with POLS. We compared the colony-level Pace-of-Life (POL) with worker survival under both control and stressful environmental conditions. While the core of the POLS hypothesis indicates that we should expect “fast” pace-of-life colonies to show decreased robustness, we instead find no association between worker lifespan and colony POL in control conditions. Under stressful conditions, we find evidence of higher robustness in “fast” colonies. This study emphasizes the need to better understand how and which mechanistic constraints are expected to drive trait correlations in Pace-of-Life Syndromes. Additionally, more focus should be placed on understanding evolutionary and mechanistic constraints across multiple levels of organization.