FIGURE 1.

The abundance of core taxa in the worker hindgut. A box and whisker plot for each colony is shown with the abundance of the taxa found in the core microbiota. The abundance of each taxon is consistent throughout the six. The number of samples in each colony are as follows: CT.A (n = 11), CT.B (n = 5), CT.C (n = 8), CT.D (n = 4), MA.A (n = 9), MA.B (n = 6). Colony MA.C was not used in this analysis due to its small sample size (n = 2). Colony CT.A contained five pooled hindguts per sample and was not used in determining the core microbiota, however, it showed the same pattern of core taxon abundances.