Two aspects could be relevant in this context.
While the role of JH seems to be fairly well established in Pheidole soldier/worker polyphenism, the primary triggering factors are still largely hypothetical. In species with a bi- or multimodal size distribution, larvae that reach a critical size, and consequently experience a different endocrine milieu, can thus be shunted into alternative developmental pathways leading to overt polyphenism, generally between a soldier and a worker caste ( Wheeler, 1994). bicarinata, similar treatment resulted in the expression of soldier characters in the emerging brood, indicating a discrete JH-dependent developmental switch in the last larval instar. invicta workers, probably due to a retarded onset of metamorphosis. Methoprene application to late larval instars led to an increase in size in S. invicta, which has a unimodal distribution of worker size ( Wheeler, 1990), and on the strongly polyphenic Pheidole bicarinata ( Wheeler, 1983, 1984). Studies exploring this aspect were carried out on the red imported fire ant, S. These, in turn, appear to impact the larval endocrine system, which regulates growth and the onset of metamorphosis. Worker/soldier reprogramming is thought to take place during late larval instars in response to different feeding conditions or other forms of social influence on larval growth. Developmental mechanisms underlying worker caste polyphenism have been extensively reviewed ( Wheeler, 1991) and mathematical models have been proposed that explicitly address the problem of growth rule reprogramming ( Nijhout and Wheeler, 1994). Rather, it is the relatively large size range of workers that underlies task preference and morphological specialization. In contrast with the other highly eusocial Hymenoptera, division of labor within ant worker castes does not seem to be governed by age-related shifts in task performance. Emlen, in Insect Endocrinology, 2012 11.3.3.2.2 The worker/soldier decision