Table 1.

Age distribution in colonies 1–17. (Worker age was determined from adult emergence to colony freezing. Colony name reflects its social structure: PCP, pre-competition phase; CP, competition phase; QL, queenless colonies. All colonies except 7CP were normally distributed. There were no significant differences in age distributions between the 17 colonies, either considering the means (Kruskal–Wallis ANOVA test: H (16, n=783)=17.48, p=0.35) or the medians of the 17 colonies (Χ₁₆²=10.11027, p=0.86).)

hive no. & social condition	colony's age at freezing	no. of workers	mean age ±s.e.	median	median range (25–75%)
PCP1	19	15	8.86±1.70	6	4–19
PCP2	19	13	7.76±1.96	5	1–13
PCP3	19	22	10.45±1.07	11	7–13
PCP4	18	22	8.86±1.21	6	4–13
PCP5	18	30	8.76±1.14	8	4–14
PCP6	18	16	11.31±1.38	12	6–16
CP7	38	93	12.67±1.00	11	5–19
CP8	38	76	13.27±1.08	11	5–20
CP9	30	35	12.74±1.54	12	5–17
CP10	34	110	12.07±0.91	10	4–16
CP11	34	73	11.95±1.02	12	4–16
CP12	34	73	12.95±1.04	11	6–18
QL13	20	37	10.59±1.00	10	6–16
QL14	20	63	9.39±0.73	10	4–14
QL15	20	55	11.07±0.79	11	6–16
QL16	20	23	11.26±1.26	11	7–17
QL17	20	27	10.51±1.15	11	5–16