Table 2. Average expression stability values of the five reference genes in forager, nurse, and integration of two tasks calculated by geNorm and NormFinder.

Program	geNorm						NormFinder
Sample	Forager		Nurse		Forager + Nurse a		Forager			Nurse			Forager + Nurse a
Ranking	gene	Average M value	gene	Average M value	gene	Average M value	Gene	Stability value	Standard error	Gene	Stability value	Standard error	Gene	Stability value	Standard error
1	rpS18	0.843	rpS18	0.866	rpS18	0.84	gapdh	0.021	0.027	gapdh	0.025	0.03	gapdh	0.022	0.019
2	gapdh	1.017	gapdh	1.072	gapdh	1.021	rpS18	0.062	0.02	rpS18	0.072	0.025	rpS18	0.067	0.014
3	rpL32	1.103	rpL32	1.142	rpL32	1.104	tbp	0.077	0.021	tbp	0.085	0.023	tbp	0.082	0.015
4	tbp	2	tbp	2.107	tbp	2.021	rpL32	0.096	0.024	rpL32	0.1	0.022	rpL32	0.096	0.017

^a Raw data from forager and nurse were combined and expression stabilities of each gene was calculated using geNorm and NormFinder.