Intra- and inter-nest variation in mitochondrial DNA in the polygynous antLeptothorax acervorum (Hymenoptera; Formicidae)

Stille, Marie; Stille, Bo

doi:10.1007/bf01323953

Cited by 51 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Intracolonial mtDNA polymorphism indicates that alien colonies of C. venustula may fuse or that alien queens or workers may be adopted, as suggested for C. obscurior (Kinomura and Yamauchi, 1987). The co-occurrence of workers with different haplotypes has previously been demonstrated in a few other ants (e.g., Stille and Stille, 1992;Carew et al, 1997;Tay et al, 1997) and there is more and more direct and indirect evidence for the evolutionary puzzling occurrence of colony fusion and the adoption of alien females (e.g., Foitzik and Heinze, 2004;Johns et al, 2009;Kellner et al, 2010). Although our collecting data and dissection of queens from laboratory colonies (A.S., unpubl.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 89%

Wingless and intermorphic males in the ant Cardiocondyla venustula

et al. 2012

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The ant genus Cardiocondyla is characterized by a pronounced male diphenism with wingless fighter males and winged disperser males. Winged males have been lost convergently in at least two species-rich clades. Here, we describe the morphological variability of males of C. venustula from uThukela valley, South Africa. Winged males appear to be absent from this species. However, in addition to wingless ("ergatoid") males with widely fused thoracic sutures and without ocelli, "intermorphic" males exist that combine the typical morphology of wingless males with characteristics of winged males, e.g., more pronounced thoracic sutures, rudimentary ocelli, and vestigial wings. Similar "intermorphic" males have previously been described from one of several genetically distinct lineages of the Southeast Asian "C. kagutsuchi" complex .To determine whether male morphology is associated with distinct clades also in C. venustula, we sequenced a 631 bp fragment of mitochondrial DNA of workers from 13 colonies. We found six haplotypes with a sequence variation of up to 5.7%. Intermorphic and wingless males did not appear to be associated with a particular of these lineages and within colonies showed the same sequence.Interestingly, two colonies contained workers with different haplotypes, suggesting the occasional migration of queens and / or workers between colonies.Keywords Cardiocondyla venustula · male diphenism · ergatoid male · intracolony mtDNA variation 3

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 89%

Wingless and intermorphic males in the ant Cardiocondyla venustula

et al. 2012

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“…In recent studies, however, several mitotypes (different alleles of maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA) were found in individuals taken from the same ant colony, suggesting that individuals from unrelated lineages may occasionally co-exist within a single nest (Stille and Stille, 1992;Tay et al, 1997;Carew et al, 1997). Genetic heterogeneity may arise from the fusion of two colonies or the adoption of alien queens into established nests due to intraspecific parasitism (Tschinkel, 1996;Foitzik and Heinze, 1998;Heinze and Keller, 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reproductive skew and queen relatedness in an ant with primary polygyny

et al. 2001

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Queens of the neotropical ponerine ant Pachycondyla cf. 'inversa' may cooperate during colony founding. Pleometrosis leads to permanent primary polygyny, with queens still co-existing in the same nest when the colony has become mature. Using multilocus DNA-fingerprinting we examined the genetic structure of colonies. Nestmate queens are typically not close relatives. Excepting one pair of queens, which appeared to be closely related, the band-sharing coefficients of co-occurring queens were similar to the background similarity among individuals from different nests. In mature colonies, queens typically contribute equally to workers and sexuals. Only in one of seven colonies did one queen produce significantly more workers than the other. Polygynous ants with unrelated queens might provide an interesting system to test predictions from kin selection theory.

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“…Second, there is a negative correlation between queen-queen relatedness and queen number in ants (Keller 1995), so that variation in queen number might be a confounding variable influencing skew independently of relatedness. Third, high relatedness among queens within colonies might be the result of high skew (rather than the cause) when queens are readopted into their native colony (Heinze 1995), as indeed is probably the case in many polygynous ants (Stille & Stille 1992;Stuart et al 1993;Keller 1995;Chapuisat et al 1997;Chapuisat & Keller 1999). Finally, for almost all these species skew is quantified as the relative contribution of queens to egg production.…”

Section:  2001 the Association For The Study Of Animal Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 99%

Partitioning of reproduction among queens in the Argentine ant, Linepithema humile

Fournier

Keller

2001

Animal Behaviour

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We investigated how queens share parentage (skew) in the Argentine ant, Linepithema humile, a social insect with multiple queens (polygyny). Overall, maternity of 546 male and female sexuals that mated successfully was determined with microsatellites in 26 colonies consisting of two queens and workers. The first main finding was that queens all contributed to sexual production. However, there was a significant departure from equal contribution to male and female sexual production in a notable proportion of colonies. Overall, reproductive skew for sexual (male and female) production was relatively low but higher than reproductive skew for egg production. The second interesting result was that there was a trade-off in the relative contribution of queens to male and female production. The queens contributing more to male production contributed significantly less to female sexual production. Finally, there was no significant association between colony productivity and the degree of reproductive skew. The relatively low reproductive skew is in line with predictions of the so-called concession models of reproductive skew because, in the Argentine ant, relatedness between queens is low and ecological constraints on dispersal nonexistent or weak.

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Intra- and inter-nest variation in mitochondrial DNA in the polygynous antLeptothorax acervorum (Hymenoptera; Formicidae)

Cited by 51 publications

References 14 publications

Wingless and intermorphic males in the ant Cardiocondyla venustula

Wingless and intermorphic males in the ant Cardiocondyla venustula

Reproductive skew and queen relatedness in an ant with primary polygyny

Partitioning of reproduction among queens in the Argentine ant, Linepithema humile

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