In response to intraand interspecific competition, ant colonies have evolved mechanisms to maximize early colony growth. Through the analysis of photographic images, this study describes the individual effect of two different strategies, pleometrosis and pupae transplantation, on the growth of Lasius niger colonies. Results showed that both methods had an overall positive effect on colony produ...

a. Risk and Information Management (RIM) Research Group, School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK, E1 4NS. b. Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] c. Director of Risk and Information Management (RIM) Research Group, School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, Queen Mary University of London, London, ...

Studies were conducted on the physiological mode of action and mode of perception of a queen pheromone that inhibits dealation (wing-shedding) and ovary development in virgin queens of the fire ant Solenopsis inuicta. Winged virgin queens were removed from the pheromonal signal (queen) to compare the response time for dealation, a behavioral response, and ovary development, a physiological resp...

Expression of colony social organization in fire ants appears to be under the control of a single Mendelian factor of large effect. Variation in colony queen number in Solenopsis invicta and its relatives is associated with allelic variation at the gene Gp-9, but not with variation at other unlinked genes; workers regulate queen identity and number on the basis of Gp-9 genotypic compatibility. ...

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...

The hallmark of eusociality is the reproductive division of labour, in which one female caste reproduces, while reproduction is constrained in the subordinate caste. In adult worker honeybees (Apis mellifera) reproductive constraint is conditional: in the absence of the queen and brood, adult worker honeybees activate their ovaries and lay haploid male eggs. Here, we demonstrate that chemical i...