The significance of latitudinal variation in body size in a holarctic ant, <i>Leptothorax acervorum</i>

Heınze, Jürgen; Foitzik, Susanne; Fischer, Birgit; Wanke, Tina; Kipyatkov, V. E.

doi:10.1034/j.1600-0587.2003.03478.x

Cited by 71 publications

(97 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…This explanation is known as the endurance hypothesis and found support from Heinze et al (2003) paper where worker size in Leptothorax acervorum (Fabricius) decreases but colony size increases with latitude. Porter & Hawkins (2001) however, questioned the application of these results to all social insects.…”

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confidence: 63%

Altitudinal distribution and body resource allocation in a High Mountain social wasp (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)

Rodríguez-Jimenez¹,

Sarmiento²

2008

Neotrop. entomol.

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Neotropical Entomology 37(1): 001-007 (2008) Distribuição Altitudinal e Alocação de Recursos no Corpo em uma Vespa Social de Montanha Alta (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)RESUMO -A regra de Jame propõe uma relação direta entre o tamanho do corpo e a altitude. Muitos estudos são relacionados a essa regra; no entanto, poucos analisam as mudanças proporcionais em partes do corpo ao longo de gradientes. Foi estudada a variação morfológica em Agelaia pallipes (Olivier) em cinco faixas altitudinais (2600-3380 m), no Santuario de Iguaque (Colombia), com o objetivo de testar se a espécie segue a regra de Jame e se o tamanho de determinadas estruturas varia homogeneamente ao longo do gradiente. O efeito da altitude em estruturas foi testado com análise de variância multivariada (MANOVA), e a relação entre cada variável e altitude avaliada com análises de regressão. A MANOVA mostrou diferenças no tamanho das estruturas entre os locais. O aumento na altura conduz à redução no tamanho de corpo, especialmente no comprimento do fêmur traseiro e na largura da cabeça. No entanto, medidas de estruturas relacionadas ao vôo, tais como o comprimento do mesosoma, largura do mesoscutum, e ainda, tamanho da asa anterior, apresentam tendência inversa. É possível que todas as mudanças sejam conseqüência da redução de alimento e da diminuição da pressão atmosférica. A temperatura baixa das altitudes maiores pode limitar o forrageamento e, portanto, os recursos. A baixa pressão atmosférica torna o vôo mais difícil e pode resultar no aumento do tamanho das asas e dos músculos do vôo. Este trabalho enfatiza a necessidade de estudos relacionados a mudanças nas proporções corporais em espécie com amplas distribuições, latitudinal e altitudinal.PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Regra de Jame, regra de Bermann, faixa altitudinal, Agelaia ABSTRACT -Jame´s rule proposes a direct relationship between body size and altitude. There are several studies about this rule; however, few studies analyze proportional changes in body parts along gradients. The morphological variation of Agelaia pallipes (Olivier) in fi ve sites along an altitudinal gradient (2600-3380 m) in the Santuario de Iguaque, Colombia, were studied in order to test whether or not the species follows Jame´s rule, and whether body parts follow a homogeneous variation. Body variation analysis was conducted through multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and the relationship between altitude and each morphometric measurement was studied through regression analyses. The MANOVA indicated signifi cant differences among sites. An increase in altitude leads to a reduction in body size, especially in hind femur length and head width. However, measurements linked to fl ight such as mesosoma height, mesoscutum width, and fore wing size showed a reverse tendency. Possibly all described changes are consequence of both reduction on food availability and lower atmospheric pressure. The low temperature of high areas may strongly limit foraging and thus food availability. Lower atmospheric pressure reduces fl ight potentia...

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confidence: 63%

Altitudinal distribution and body resource allocation in a High Mountain social wasp (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)

Rodríguez-Jimenez¹,

Sarmiento²

2008

Neotrop. entomol.

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“…Such a pattern has also been observed at the interspeciWc level (Davidson et al 2004;Ness et al 2004). Larger workers also tend to survive better (Porter and Tschinkel 1985;Calabi and Porter 1989) and be more resistant to starvation (Heinze et al 2003). Producing larger workers could therefore be advantageous for the colony.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Habitat-related microgeographic variation of worker size and colony size in the ant Cataglyphis cursor

Clémencet¹,

Doums²

2007

Oecologia

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In social insects, colony size is a crucial life-history trait thought to have major implications for the evolution of social complexity, especially in relation to worker size polymorphism. Yet, little is known about how ecological factors can affect and constrain colony. Here, we explored the pattern of colony-size and worker-size variation in the Mediterranean ant Cataglyphis cursor, in relation to the type of habitats colonized (seaside vs. vineyard). The high level of the water table in the seaside habitat could constrain the depth of C. cursor underground nests and directly constrain its colony size. If worker size increases with colony size, as observed in other ant species, larger colony size and larger workers should be found in the vineyard populations. By comparing worker size among 16 populations, we verified that workers were significantly larger in the vineyard populations. We further determined that the morphological similarities detected among populations from the same habitat type were not due to geographic or genetic proximity. In two populations from each habitat type, the depth of nests was positively correlated with colony size and colony size with worker size. Using a type II regression approach, we further showed that the difference between the two populations in the depth of nest was sufficient to explain the difference in colony size, and similarly, variation in colony size was sufficient to explain variation in worker size. Our results suggest that a single proximate ecological factor could lead to significant variation in major life-history parameters.

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“…Larger body size may be critical to enable future foundresses to overwinter, e.g. Beekman et al (1998) and Heinze et al (2003); but see Richards and Packer (1996) and Weissel et al (2012). Thus, at higher latitudes, as the total growing season gradually shortens, a foundress' strategy might be to produce smaller first brood workers, leaving more time for the development of second brood foundresses large enough to survive the winter.…”

Section: Body Size and Demographymentioning

confidence: 96%

Body size, demography and foraging in a socially plastic sweat bee: a common garden experiment

Field

Paxton

Soro

et al. 2012

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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Phenotypic plasticity may evolve when conditions vary temporally or spatially on a small enough scale. Plasticity is thought to play a central role in the early stages of evolutionary transitions, including major transitions such as those between non-sociality and sociality. The sweat bee Halictus rubicundus is of special interest in this respect, because it is socially plastic in the British Isles: Nests are social or non-social depending on the environment. However, sociality comprises a complex suite of interrelated traits. To further investigate social plasticity in H. rubicundus, we measured traits that are potentially integral to social phenotype at a northern site, where nests are nonsocial, and a southern site where nests can be social. We found that foundresses at non-social sites were smaller, produced offspring of a size more similar to themselves, initiated nesting later, and took longer to produce their first female offspring. They began provisioning earlier in the day, finished earlier, and collected more pollen loads. Common garden experiments suggested that these differences represent mainly plasticity, as expected for traits involved in the overall plastic social phenotype, with only limited evidence for fixed genetic differences in foraging. Conditions during overwintering did not have major effects on a foundress' subsequent behaviour.

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The significance of latitudinal variation in body size in a holarctic ant, Leptothorax acervorum

Cited by 71 publications

References 34 publications

Altitudinal distribution and body resource allocation in a High Mountain social wasp (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)

Altitudinal distribution and body resource allocation in a High Mountain social wasp (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)

Habitat-related microgeographic variation of worker size and colony size in the ant Cataglyphis cursor

Body size, demography and foraging in a socially plastic sweat bee: a common garden experiment

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