Polygyny, Inbreeding, and Wingless Males in the Malagasy Ant Cardiocondyla shuckardi Forel (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)

Heınze, Jürgen; Schrempf, Alexandra; Rakotondrazafy, Honoré; Rakotondranaivo, Tsiriniaina; Fisher, Brian L.

doi:10.13102/sociobiology.v61i3.300-306

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 28 publications

(36 reference statements)

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“…In the native and invasive ranges of the Argentine ant, intranidal mating is not associated with inbreeding (Ingram, ; Krieger & Keller, ), as colonies contain large numbers of unrelated queens that frequently move between nests (Jaquiéry, Vogel, & Keller, ; Pedersen, Krieger, Vogel, Giraud, & Keller, ). However, low to high levels of inbreeding have been reported in a few species (Cole & Wiernasz, ; Haag‐Liautard, Vitikainen, Keller, & Sundstrom, ; Heinze, ; Heinze, Schrempf, Rakotondrazafy, & Fisher, ; Sundstrom, Keller, & Chapuisat, ; Thurin & Aron, ). In these species, inbreeding is mostly detrimental and affects several life history traits.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inbreeding tolerance as a pre‐adapted trait for invasion success in the invasive ant Brachyponera chinensis

et al. 2018

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Identifying traits that facilitate species introductions and successful invasions of ecosystems represents a key issue in ecology. Following their establishment into new environments, many non‐native species exhibit phenotypic plasticity with post‐introduction changes in behaviour, morphology or life history traits that allow them to overcome the presumed loss of genetic diversity resulting in inbreeding and reduced adaptive potential. Here, we present a unique strategy in the invasive ant Brachyponera chinensis (Emery), in which inbreeding tolerance is a pre‐adapted trait for invasion success, allowing this ant to cope with genetic depletion following a genetic bottleneck. We report for the first time that inbreeding is not a consequence of the founder effect following introduction, but it is due to mating between sister queens and their brothers that pre‐exists in native populations which may have helped it circumvent the cost of invasion. We show that a genetic bottleneck does not affect the genetic diversity or the level of heterozygosity within colonies and suggest that generations of sib‐mating in native populations may have reduced inbreeding depression through purifying selection of deleterious alleles. This work highlights how a unique life history may pre‐adapt some species for biological invasions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inbreeding tolerance as a pre‐adapted trait for invasion success in the invasive ant Brachyponera chinensis

et al. 2018

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“…Territorial males appear to have more access to female sexuals by excluding other males from approaching them. Unfortunately, the hesitancy of female sexuals to mate during the observation sessions and the notoriously low variability of genetic markers throughout Cardiocondyla, together with frequent inbreeding and high nestmate relatedness (e.g., Heinze et al, 2014;Schmidt et al, 2016), did not allow quantifying the reproductive success of individual males or the mating frequency of queens. Mating frequency varies across species of Cardiocondyla (e.g., Schrempf et al, 2005;Lenoir et al, 2007;Schmidt et al, 2016), and a few behavioral observations suggest multiple mating.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Between fighting and tolerance: reproductive biology of wingless males in the ant Cardiocondyla venustula

Jacobs

Heinze

2016

Insect Science

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Male reproductive tactics vary widely across the species of the ant genus Cardiocondyla, from obligatory lethal combat among co-occurring males to complete mutual tolerance. The African species C. venustula Wheeler, 1908 has an intermediate phylogenetic position between taxa with fighting males and taxa with tolerant males and also shows an intermediate male behavior. Males from 2 native populations in South Africa and a population introduced to Puerto Rico attacked and killed freshly eclosing rivals but rarely engaged in deadly fights with adult competitors. Instead, several males per colony established small "territories" in their natal nests and defended them against other males. Males with a stable territory had more contact with female sexuals than nonterritorial males and more frequently engaged in mating attempts. In controlled choice experiments, female sexuals did not show any preference for particular males. We suggest that male territoriality in C. venustula is an adaptation to the seasonal production of large numbers of female sexuals by multiple mothers.

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“…The inbreeding and relatedness coefficients obtained by microsatellite genotyping for nestmates of C. venustula were higher than in other Cardiocondyla species [28][29][30]44], including the related C. shuckardi from Madagascar [43]. The inbreeding coefficient suggests more than 80% sib-mating.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

“…Unfortunately, the low genetic diversity, already known from previous studies in other Cardiocondyla species (e.g. [29,43,44]) together with sib-mating and the short lifespan and rapid turnover of queens [45] makes it difficult to resolve colony and population structure to a high degree of accuracy. Nevertheless, our findings are in agreement with previous assumptions about the dispersal biology of this genus, with local mating, short-range dispersal by queens, colony budding, and occasional long-range dispersal by queens on the wing or mediated by human activities.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Population and colony structure of an ant with territorial males, Cardiocondyla venustula

Jacobs

Heınze

2019

BMC Evol Biol

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Background: Many species of social insects have large-scale mating and dispersal flights and their populations are therefore often relatively homogenous. In contrast, dispersal on the wing appears to be uncommon in most species of the ant genus Cardiocondyla, because its males are wingless and the winged queens mate in their natal nests before dispersing on foot. Here we examine the population structure of C. venustula from South Africa. This species is of particular interest for the analysis of life history evolution in Cardiocondyla, as it occupies a phylogenetic position between tropical species with multi-queen (polygynous) colonies and fighting males and a Palearctic clade with single-queen colonies and mutually peaceful males. Males of C. venustula exhibit an intermediate strategy between lethal fighting and complete tolerancethey mostly engage in non-lethal fights and defend small territories inside their natal nests. We investigated how this reproductive behavior influences colony and population structure by analyzing samples on two geographic scales in South Africa: a small 40 × 40m 2 plot and a larger area with distances up to 5 km between sampling sites in Rietvlei Nature Reserve near Pretoria. Results: Colonies were found to be facultatively polygynous and queens appear to mate only with a single male. The extraordinarily high inbreeding coefficient suggests regular sib-mating. Budding by workers and young queens is the predominant mode of colony-founding and leads to high population viscosity. In addition, some queens appear to found colonies independently or through adoption into foreign nests. Conclusion: While C. venustula resembles tropical Cardiocondyla in queen number and mating frequency, it differs by the absence of winged disperser males. Dispersal by solitary, mated queens on foot or by short flights and their adoption by alien colonies might promote gene flow between colonies and counteract prolonged inbreeding. The abundance of suitable habitat and the high density of nests facilitate the spread of this species by budding and together with the apparent resistance against inbreeding make it a highly successful pioneer species and invader of degraded and man-made habitats.

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Polygyny, Inbreeding, and Wingless Males in the Malagasy Ant Cardiocondyla shuckardi Forel (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)

Cited by 9 publications

References 28 publications

Inbreeding tolerance as a pre‐adapted trait for invasion success in the invasive ant Brachyponera chinensis

Inbreeding tolerance as a pre‐adapted trait for invasion success in the invasive ant Brachyponera chinensis

Between fighting and tolerance: reproductive biology of wingless males in the ant Cardiocondyla venustula

Population and colony structure of an ant with territorial males, Cardiocondyla venustula

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