Intrapopulation nestclusters of maternal mtDNA lineages in the polygynous ant <i>Leptothorax acervorum</i> (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Stille, Marie; Stille, Bo

doi:10.1111/j.1365-2583.1993.tb00112.x

Cited by 36 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Although worker aggression in L. acervorum did sometimes result in queen death, the majority of L. acervorum queens were not killed and remained in the nest. This largely non-lethal aggression can be considered a conflict-resolving mechanism [5] that allows nonreproductive queens to remain in the nest as insurance against death of the reproductive queen [35], or perhaps for future budding [50,60] or solitary dispersal [61][62][63][64]. Social queuing-where queens wait for a reproductive opportunity [65,66]-could thus be potentially important in functionally monogynous L. acervorum colonies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Workers influence royal reproduction

Gill

Hammond

2010

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Understanding which parties regulate reproduction is fundamental to understanding conflict resolution in animal societies. In social insects, workers can influence male production and sex ratio. Surprisingly, few studies have investigated worker influence over which queen(s) reproduce(s) in multiple queen (MQ) colonies (skew), despite skew determining worker-brood relatedness and so worker fitness. We provide evidence for worker influence over skew in a functionally monogynous population of the ant Leptothorax acervorum. Observations of MQ colonies leading up to egg laying showed worker aggressive and nonaggressive behaviour towards queens and predicted which queen monopolized reproduction. In contrast, among-queen interactions were rare and did not predict queen reproduction. Furthermore, parentage analysis showed workers favoured their mother when present, ensuring closely related fullsibs (average r ¼ 0.5) were reared instead of less related offspring of other resident queens (r 0.375). Discrimination among queens using relatedness-based cues, however, seems unlikely as workers also biased their behaviour in colonies without a mother queen. In other polygynous populations of this species, workers are not aggressive towards queens and MQs reproduce, showing the outcome of social conflicts varies within species. In conclusion, this study supports non-reproductive parties having the power and information to influence skew within cooperative breeding groups.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Workers influence royal reproduction

Gill

Hammond

2010

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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“…Significant microgeographic genetic differentiation has been reported in at least 11 other ant species (Halliday 1983;Pamilo 1983;Crozier et al 1984;Pamilo and Rosengren 1984;Boomsma et al 1990;Stille and Stille 1993;Herbers and Grieco 1994;Seppa and Pamilo 1995;Banschbach and Herbers 1996;Ross et aI., unpubl, data cited in Ross and Keller 1995). Interestingly, all these species form polygynous colonies and most probably reproduce at least occasionally by nest budding.…”

Section: Genetic Relatedness Among Nestmate Workersmentioning

confidence: 94%

MICROSATELLITES REVEAL HIGH POPULATION VISCOSITY AND LIMITED DISPERSAL IN THE ANTFORMICA PARALUGUBRIS

1997

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Abstract.-We used micro satellites to study the fine-scale genetic structure of a highly polygynous and largely unicolonial population of the ant Formica paralugubris. Genetic data indicate that long-distance gene flow between established nests is limited and new queens are primarily recruited from within their natal nest. Most matings occur between nestmates and are random at this level. In the center of the study area, budding and permanent connections between nests result in strong population viscosity, with close nests being more similar genetically than distant nests. In contrast, nests located outside of this supercolony show no isolation by distance, suggesting that they have been initiated by queens that participated in mating flights rather than by budding from nearby nests in our sample population. Recruitment of nestmates as new reproductive individuals and population viscosity in the supercolony increase genetic differentiation between nests. This in turn inflates relatedness estimates among worker nestmates (r = 0.17) above what is due to close pedigree links. Local spatial genetic differentiation may favor the maintenance of altruism when workers raise queens that will disperse on foot and compete with less related queens from neighboring nests or disperse on the wing and compete with unrelated queens.Key words.-Ants, dispersal, Formica, genetic differentiation, microsatellite, population viscosity, queen number, relatedness, social evolution, social insects.Received June 24, 1996. Accepted October 17, 1996.The existence of sterile individuals in social insect colonies poses an evolutionary paradox, namely the difficulty of perpetuating sterility by natural selection when bearers of this trait leave no offspring. An important contribution to the resolution of this puzzle has been provided by Hamilton (1963, I964a,b), who showed that individuals can pass on copies of their genes to the next generation not only by producing offspring, but also by helping nondescendent kin, such as siblings.Colonies of social insects typically consist of related individuals, a necessary condition for kin selection to operate. However, nests of some ant and wasp species contain a high number of queens, which has the effect that nestmates are only distantly related (e.g., Sturtevant 1938; Queller et al.

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“…A, Buschinger, 1987, 1989;Heinze, 1993; for a summary see Buschinger and Heinze, 1992). In the fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, externally indistinguishable queens may differ only in weight and behavior (Howard and Tschinkel, 1978;Tschinkel, 1996) and in the queens of some species no morphological correlates of differences in reproductive tactic have been reported (e.g., Leptothorax acervorum; Douwes et al, 1987;Stille and Stille, 1993). Intraspecific size dimorphism of ant queens might represent a (probably stable) intermediate stage in the evolution of a stronger morphological divergence between dispersing and non-dispersing forms.…”

Section: Alternative Reproductive Strategies In Ant Queensmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This strengthens the hypothesis that readoption of related queens instead of intraspecific parasitism is much more important for the establishment of polygynous (mixed) colonies in these species with size-polymorphic queens. However, a high average relatedness coefficient between queens does not exclude rare adoption events of unrelated queens (Stille and Stille, 1993). In order to evaluate the facultative tactic of parasitizing macrogynes it needs to be shown how often unrelated microgynes are adopted and whether they produce more than their proportional share of sexuals.…”

Section: Size Polymorphism As Morphological Correlate Of Alternative mentioning

confidence: 99%

Alternative reproductive tactics in females: the case of size polymorphism in winged ant queens

Rüppell¹,

Heınze²

1999

Insectes Sociaux

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Alternative reproductive tactics are common in males but rather rare in females. In this respect, ants are apparently an interesting exception. Ant queens can either start a new colony on their own or utilize the work force of existing colonies for dependent colony founding. As the success of these different options depends on body reserves of the queens, the finding of two different classes of alate queens in some ant species that differ only in size strongly suggests alternative modes of reproduction. Studies of queen size polymorphism from a number of ant species differ in scope and also in their results. Nevertheless, across taxa evidence exists that small queens found dependently while their larger conspecifics found colonies on their own. However, in most cases it is not clear whether the small queens exploit unrelated colonies (intraspecific "social parasitism") or return to their natal colonies. In some ant species the queen size polymorphism might constitute an evolutionary transition to either interspecific social parasitism or a morphologically more pronounced queen polymorphism linked to dispersal. In others, queen size polymorphism might be a stable phenomenon. Although it is important in this context whether queen size polymorphism is caused by a genetic polymorphism or phenotypic plasticity, so far no conclusive evidence about proximate mechanisms of size determination has been presented. Some considerations are made about the question why female alternative reproductive tactics correlated with morphological adaptations are comparatively widespread in ants.

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Intrapopulation nestclusters of maternal mtDNA lineages in the polygynous ant Leptothorax acervorum (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Cited by 36 publications

References 20 publications

Workers influence royal reproduction

Workers influence royal reproduction

MICROSATELLITES REVEAL HIGH POPULATION VISCOSITY AND LIMITED DISPERSAL IN THE ANTFORMICA PARALUGUBRIS

Alternative reproductive tactics in females: the case of size polymorphism in winged ant queens

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