Extreme reproductive specialization within ant colonies: some queens produce males whereas others produce workers
نویسندگان
چکیده
منابع مشابه
Colonies of Bumble Bees (Bombus impatiens) Produce Fewer Workers, Less Bee Biomass, and Have Smaller Mother Queens Following Fungicide Exposure
Bees provide vital pollination services to the majority of flowering plants in both natural and agricultural systems. Unfortunately, both native and managed bee populations are experiencing declines, threatening the persistence of these plants and crops. Agricultural chemicals are one possible culprit contributing to bee declines. Even fungicides, generally considered safe for bees, have been s...
متن کاملExperimental manipulation of queen number affects colony sex ratio investment in the highly polygynous ant Formica exsecta.
In polygynous (multiple queens per nest) ants, queen dispersal is often limited with young queens being recruited within the parental colony. This mode of dispersal leads to local resource competition between nestmate queens and is frequently associated with extremely male-biased sex ratios at the population level. The queen-replenishment hypothesis has been recently proposed to explain colony ...
متن کاملReproductive specialization in multiple-queen colonies of the ant Formica exsecta
In polygynous (multiple queens per nest) colonies of social insects, queens can increase their reproductive share by laying more eggs or by increasing the proportion of eggs that develop into reproductive individuals instead of workers. We used polymorphic microsatellite loci to determine the genetically effective contribution of queens to the production of gynes (new queens), males, and 2 diff...
متن کاملMating with Stressed Males Increases the Fitness of Ant Queens
BACKGROUND According to sexual conflict theory, males can increase their own fitness by transferring substances during copulation that increase the short-term fecundity of their mating partners at the cost of the future life expectancy and re-mating capability of the latter. In contrast, sexual cooperation is expected in social insects. Mating indeed positively affects life span and fecundity o...
متن کاملCheating honeybee workers produce royal offspring.
The Cape bee (Apis mellifera capensis) is unique among honeybees in that workers can lay eggs that instead of developing into males develop into females via thelytokous parthenogenesis. We show that this ability allows workers to compete directly with the queen over the production of new queens. Genetic analyses using microsatellites revealed that 23 out of 39 new queens produced by seven colon...
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ژورنال
عنوان ژورنال: Animal Behaviour
سال: 2007
ISSN: 0003-3472
DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2007.03.014