BioConcepts

polyethismPolyethismus (ger.)

• The display of different patterns of behaviour by particular individuals within a colony of social insects. (OED 2011)
  category polymorphism

  1956

  On analogy with the phenomenon of polymorphism in ants […] we may term the possession of different behavior repertoires in different members of the same species at the same stage of growth, polyethism

  Chance, M.R.A. (1956). The role of convulsions in behavior. Behavioral Science 2, 30-45: 42.

  1958

  Polyethism in workers of the ant Myrmica

  Weir, J. (1958). Polyethism in workers of the ant Myrmica. Insectes Sociaux 5, 97-128; 315-339.

  1963

  Weir […] has used the term “polyethism” to mean, in a rather special sense, the differences in “job preference” among worker ants. Actually, the term would be quite useful if more broadly employed as a synonym for the cumbersome “division of labor,” and a distinction made between “age polyethism” and “caste polyethism.”

  Wilson, E.O. (1963). The social biology of ants. Ann. Rev. Entomol. 8, 345-368: 356-7.

  1965

  The phenomena associated with castes in social insects can be classified as anatomical polymorphism, biochemical polymorphism, and polyethism (variation in behavior resulting in division of labor)

  Law, J.H., Wilson, E.O. & McCloskey, J.A. (1965). Biochemical polymorphism in ants. Science 149, 544-546: 546.

  1982

  polyethism The division of labour within a society on the basis of morphological castes (caste polyethism) or age (age polyethism).

  Lincoln, R.J., Boxshall, G.A. & Clark, P.F. (1982). A Dictionary of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics: 197.