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

Fournier, Denis; Keller, Laurent

doi:10.1006/anbe.2001.1848

Cited by 29 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…The distribution of sucrose to queens varied greatly, with some queens receiving substantially more food than others. This finding suggests a possible reproductive dominance hierarchy, often observed in polygynous ant species (Fournier and Keller, 2001;Vargo, 1990). The larvae received relatively small amounts of sucrose with some individuals receiving substantially more food than others.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 79%

Dispersed central-place foraging in the polydomous odorous house ant, Tapinoma sessile as revealed by a protein marker

Buczkowski

Bennett

2006

Insect. Soc.

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The odorous house ant, Tapinoma sessile, is a native ant species common throughout North America. In urban areas, this ant is classified a pest species and exhibits several attributes characteristic of invasive "tramp" ants (sensu Passera, 1994). These include: extreme polygyny, colony reproduction by budding, reduced internest aggression, generalist diet, and polydomy. Here we explore the organization of foraging and the pathways of food distribution in polydomous colonies of T. sessile in the laboratory and field using a novel marking technique (rabbit IgG protein) and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Laboratory assays revealed patterns of food allocation from foragers to other castes and developmental stages. Foragers distributed the IgG-labelled sucrose to the majority of workers within 24 h, and workers retained significantly more sucrose than either queens or larvae. Approximately 50 % of queens tested positive for the IgG marker and some queens received significantly more sucrose than others, indicating a possible reproductive dominance hierarchy. Larvae received little sucrose demonstrating their minor reliance on carbohydrates. The results of field experiments showed that odorous house ants are dispersed central-place foragers whereby ants from individual nests exhibit high foraging site fidelity, travel along well-established trails, and forage on a local scale. Dispersed central-place foraging most likely allows the odorous house ant to more efficiently secure both clumped and dispersed food sources and possibly increases its competitive ability. As a result, colonies become numerically large and ecologically dominant. The results of our study contribute to our understanding of the social behavior and colony organization in T. sessile. In addition, they provide a framework for designing more effective ant control programs based on liquid baits.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 79%

Dispersed central-place foraging in the polydomous odorous house ant, Tapinoma sessile as revealed by a protein marker

Buczkowski

Bennett

2006

Insect. Soc.

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“…The assumptions of single mating and equal share of worker production are supported by previous studies Krieger and Keller 2000;Fournier and Keller 2001). When the Hardy-Weinberg test rejected the assumption of random mating, the direct estimate of worker relatedness (r) was replaced by the estimator r* (''inbreeding corrected relatedness''; (Pamilo 1985) which corrects for the inflating effect of genetic substructuring of the reference population (see above).…”

Section: Statistical Analysesmentioning

confidence: 93%

Native Supercolonies of Unrelated Individuals in the Invasive Argentine Ant

et al. 2006

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Abstract. Kinship among group members has long been recognized as a main factor promoting the evolution of sociality and reproductive altruism, yet some ants have an extraordinary social organization, called unicoloniality, whereby individuals mix freely among physically separated nests. This type of social organization is not only a key attribute responsible for the ecological dominance of these ants, but also an evolutionary paradox because relatedness between nestmates is effectively zero. Recently, it has been proposed that, in the Argentine ant, unicoloniality is a derived trait that evolved after its introduction into new habitats. Here we test this basic assumption by conducting a detailed genetic analysis of four native and six introduced populations with five to 15 microsatellite loci and one mitochondrial gene. In contrast to the assumption that native populations consist of family-based colonies with related individuals who are aggressive toward members of other colonies, we found that native populations also form supercolonies, and are effectively unicolonial. Moreover, just as in introduced populations, the relatedness between nestmates is not distinguishable from zero in these native range supercolonies. Genetic differentiation between native supercolonies was very high for both nuclear and mitochondrial markers, indicating extremely limited gene flow between supercolonies. The only important difference between the native and introduced populations was that supercolonies were several orders of magnitude smaller in the native range (25-500 m). This size difference has important consequences for our understanding of the evolution and stability of unicolonial structures because the relatively small size of supercolonies in the native range implies that competition can occur between supercolonies, which can act as a break on the spread of selfish mutants by eliminating supercolonies harboring them.

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“…Contrary to our third assumption, we found that coexisting L. acervorum queens exhibited significant variation in their relative contributions to female and male progeny (cf. Fournier and Keller 2001). In general, skew among male progeny was higher than among female progeny (B=0.56 and 0.15 among males and new workers, figure) and number of old (adult) workers (representing a measure of productivity; lower figure) respectively, and B adj =0.67 and 0.28 among males and new workers, respectively; data from five colonies in Table 3), from which it follows that skew among sexual progeny as a whole would be higher than skew estimated among females only.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A test of reproductive skew models in a field population of a multiple-queen ant

Hammond

Bruford

Bourke

2006

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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Determining the evolutionary basis of variation in reproductive skew (degree of sharing of reproduction among coexisting individuals) is an important task both because skew varies widely across social taxa and because testing models of skew evolution permits tests of kin selection theory. Using parentage analyses based on microsatellite markers, we measured skew among female eggs (n=32.3 eggs per colony, range=20-68) in 17 polygynous colonies from a UK field population of the ant Leptothorax acervorum. We used skew among eggs as our principal measure of skew because of the high degree of queen turnover in the study population. Queens within colonies did not make significantly unequal contributions to queen and worker adult or pupal offspring, indicating that skew among female eggs reflected skew among daughter queens. On average, both skew among female eggs (measured by the B index) and queen-queen relatedness proved to be low (meansTSE=0.06T0.02 and 0.28T0.08, respectively). However, contrary to current skew models, there was no significant association of skew with either relatedness or worker number (used as a measure of productivity). In L. acervorum, predictions of the concession model of skew may hold between but not within populations because queens are unable to assess their relatedness to other queens within colonies. Additional phenomena that may help maintain low skew in the study population include indiscriminate infanticide in the form of egg cannibalism and split sex ratios that penalize reproductive monopoly by single queens within polygynous colonies.

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

Cited by 29 publications

References 41 publications

Dispersed central-place foraging in the polydomous odorous house ant, Tapinoma sessile as revealed by a protein marker

Dispersed central-place foraging in the polydomous odorous house ant, Tapinoma sessile as revealed by a protein marker

Native Supercolonies of Unrelated Individuals in the Invasive Argentine Ant

A test of reproductive skew models in a field population of a multiple-queen ant

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