The evolution of cheaper workers facilitated larger societies and accelerated diversification in ants

Trade-offs between quantity and quality are common in the organization and evolution of biological, technological, and economic systems. In social insects, shifts from solitary organisms to complex societies bring this dilemma to the colony scale: producing fewer robust units or many cheaper ones. We investigate how cuticle investment, a major nutritional cost, shaped the evolution of ant societies and diversification. Using a computer vision approach on three-dimensional x-ray microtomography scans of 880 specimens from 507 species, we show that larger colonies were facilitated by reducing exoskeleton investment rather than miniaturizing workers. Reduced cuticle investment was associated with accelerated diversification rates in ants, whereas other candidates—colony size and worker size—did not correlate with diversification. Diet and climate had measurable but secondary effects on cuticle investment. Our results support a hypothesis whereby evolving cheaper but more numerous units through reduced investment in structural tissues was a strategic trend in the evolution and diversification of complex insect societies.