Social Evolution: Early Production of Deadly Males by Competing Queens
نویسنده
چکیده
Males usually have little involvement in the dramas of social insect societies, but a newly identified Cardiocondyla ant species has been found to produce long-lived, murderous males, even before the first workers, in a new form of queen-queen competition.
منابع مشابه
Worker interests and male production in Polistes gallicus, a Mediterranean social wasp.
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Wingless males of the ant genus Cardiocondyla engage in fatal fighting for access to female sexual nestmates. Older, heavily sclerotized males are usually capable of eliminating all younger rivals, whose cuticle is still soft. In Cardiocondyla sp. A, this type of local mate competition (LMC) has turned the standard pattern of brood production of social insects upside down, in that mother queens...
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Although multiple mating most likely increases mortality risk for social insect queens and lowers the kin benefits for nonreproductive workers, a significant proportion of hymenopteran queens mate with several males. It has been suggested that queens may mate multiply as a means to manipulate sex ratios to their advantage. Multiple paternity reduces the extreme relatedness value of females for ...
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ورودعنوان ژورنال:
- Current Biology
دوره 16 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2006