Colony Founding by Queens of the Red Imported Fire Ant, Solenopsis invicta1

Markin, George P.; Collins, H. L.; Dillier, Justin H.

doi:10.1093/aesa/65.5.1053

Cited by 72 publications

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“…Some other ant species with clumped, natal nests engage in internest brood raiding in the process of establishing natal territories (references cited above). This may select for pleometrosis (Rissing and Pollock, in press) which generally results in more rapid production of a larger initial worker force (Waloff 1957;Stumper 1962;Markin et al 1972;Taki 1976;Mintzer 1979;Bartz andHBlldobler 1982, Tsehinkel andHoward 1983, Rissing andPollock, in press). Colonies of these species are also territorial as adults.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Natal Nest Distribution and Pleometrosis in the Desert Leaf‐Cutter Ant Acromyrmex Versicolor (Pergande) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Rissing

Johnson

Pollock

1986

Psyche: A Journal of Entomology

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While most ant colonies are started by single queens, colony foundation by groups of queens, pleometrosis, also occurs (Wilson 1971, H6lldobler andWilson 1977). Several extensively studied, highly pleometrotic species are notably similar with respect to important aspects of colony ontogeny and population dynamics.Myrmecocystus mimicus, Solenopsis invicta and l/'eromessor pergandei queens found colonies mutualistically without respect to relatedness (Bartz and H6lldobler 1982, Tschinkel and Howard 1983, Pollock and Rissing 1985, Rissing and Pollock 1986. Further, while adult colonies of these species are highly territorial (Htilldobler 1976a(Htilldobler , 1981Wilson et al. 1971;Went et al. 1972, Wheeler andRissing 1975), natal colonies are clumped with brood raiding and subsequent worker defection from brood-raided colonies occurring (references cited above for M. mimicus and S. invicta, for F. pergandei: Rissing and Pollock, in press). Given such frequently deleterious natal colony interactions, adaptive value of b.abitat selection by founding queens resulting in clumping of natal nests is unclear. Natal nests of M. mimicus are generally clumped in areas devoid of adult nests (Bartz and H6lldobler 1982), yet still occur near such nests (B. H611dobler, pers. comm.) (Fig. 1). Although measurements were not taken, the same distribution of starting nests was observed at South Mountain Park. All queens examined for temperature tolerance survived exposure to temperature up to and including 40C for at least 2 hr; survivorship was 0, however, at Acromyrmex versicolor is highly pleometrotic; 82.5% of all queens excavated (N 160 queens from 64 nests) were from pleometrotic associations (Table 1). Relatedness appears unimportant in a queen's decision to enter a foundress association; five of the 8 "choice boxes" resulted in a single starting nest occupied by all 8 queens. The remaining 3 boxes had two starting nests each: of these 6 starting nests, 4 contained queens from both collection locales, contained 3 queens from one site only, and the last contained a solitary foundress. DISCUSSIONThe distinct habitat choice of A. versicolor queens (Fig. 1)

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Natal Nest Distribution and Pleometrosis in the Desert Leaf‐Cutter Ant Acromyrmex Versicolor (Pergande) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Rissing

Johnson

Pollock

1986

Psyche: A Journal of Entomology

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“…The process of S. invicta colony foundation begins with mating flights of massive numbers of reproductives that occur mainly during late spring and early summer (Markin et al, 1972). Queens mate once in midair; after mating they descend to the ground, shed their wings and dig a hole to serve as an initial colony chamber.…”

Section: Background For the Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The priority for queens at this time appears to be avoidance of dehydration, rather than joining a relative (Tschinkel, 1998); thus, it is generally assumed that co-founding queens are unrelated for S. invicta as well as for many other ant species (Bourke and Franks, 1996;Sasaki et al, 1996). Colony founding is claustral, meaning that the chamber is sealed soon after excavation and not reopened until the first workers emerge (Markin et al, 1972). Founding colony chambers are usually clumped in favorable habitats such as local high points that avoid floods (Tschinkel and Howard, 1983).…”

Section: Background For the Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some of these eggs develop into larvae, while others are trophic eggs that are fed to the developing larvae. Depending on temperature (Tschinkel, 1993), the development time from egg to worker is 22-31 days (Markin et al, 1972). During this time, queens in pleometrotic associations often groom and feed each other (personal observations), although aggression among queens prior to worker emergence has been observed (Bernasconi and Keller, 1999).…”

Section: Background For the Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Conditions favoring queen execution in young social insect colonies

Balas

2005

Insectes Soc.

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Previous attempts to explain worker aggression against extra queens in young social insect colonies have used kin selection arguments. These have been inconsistent with experimental evidence demonstrating aggression against extra queens without strong evidence of kin discrimination. Using a game theoretical model, I suggest a series of decision rules that are consistent with the current experimental evidence from study of young colonies of the fire ant Solenopsis invicta. These decision rules are: 1) When workers cannot directly determine which queen is their mother, they should behave in favor of a queen that maximizes the product of the chance that a queen is the workers' mother multiplied by the chance that it will survive to colony maturity. In some cases, the survival potential of the different queens may be the only character that influences the workers' decision. 2) Workers should delay aggression against extra queens until the workers can gain their greatest advantage through such aggression. 3) Queens may adopt strategies that allow them to dominate rivals, either by gaining an advantage in fights among the queens or by increasing their attractiveness to workers.

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“…These populations belong to the monogyne form, i.e. mature colonies contain only one queen (Ross & Fletcher 1985a) and colony founding occurs as described, with either solitary or multiple (2^10) queens (Markin et al 1972;Tschinkel & Howard 1983). Queens were placed in laboratory nests (see Bernasconi & Keller 1996) within 48 h of collection.…”

Section: M At E R I a L A N D M Et Hod Smentioning

confidence: 99%

Unequal partitioning of reproduction and investment between cooperating queens in the fire ant,Solenopsis invicta, as revealed by microsatellites

Bernasconi

Krieger

Keller

1997

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

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Social insects provide ideal systems for investigating how kinship and ecological factors a¡ect cooperation and con£ict. In many ant species, unrelated queens cooperate to initiate new colonies. However, ¢ghts between queens break out after the eclosion of the ¢rst workers, leading to the death of all but one queen. Queens within associations potentially face a trade-o¡. On one hand, a queen should restrain her investment in brood production and care if this helps her to maintain ¢ghting ability. On the other hand, a queen may bene¢t by increasing her contribution to brood production if having more daughter workers than her cofoundresses enhances her chances of taking over the colony. Increased investment is also bene¢cial because a large brood enhances colony survival. Using microsatellites, we determined the maternity of workers (adults and larvae) at the time of queen execution in the ¢re ant, Solenopsis invicta. Di¡erential mass loss by initially equal nestmates a¡ected survival, with the queen losing less body mass being more likely to survive. Surprisingly, the queen which lost less body mass, that is the one which provided the lowest energy investment, was the one which achieved higher maternity. A control experiment indicated that interactions among queens are responsible for this di¡erential partitioning of reproductive and investment tasks between nestmates. The ¢nding that the queen most likely to win the ¢ghts is the one with above-average maternity may explain why workers apparently do not attempt to in£uence the outcome of ¢ghts.

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Colony Founding by Queens of the Red Imported Fire Ant, Solenopsis invicta1

Cited by 72 publications

References 0 publications

Natal Nest Distribution and Pleometrosis in the Desert Leaf‐Cutter Ant Acromyrmex Versicolor (Pergande) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Natal Nest Distribution and Pleometrosis in the Desert Leaf‐Cutter Ant Acromyrmex Versicolor (Pergande) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Conditions favoring queen execution in young social insect colonies

Unequal partitioning of reproduction and investment between cooperating queens in the fire ant,Solenopsis invicta, as revealed by microsatellites

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