TY - JOUR
T1 - Role of the queen in regulating reproduction in the bulldog ant Myrmecia gulosa
T2 - Control or signalling?
AU - Dietemann, Vincent
AU - Peeters, Christian
AU - Hölldobler, Bert
N1 - Funding Information:
We are grateful to Jürgen Liebig for helpful discussions and to two anonymous referees for improving the manuscript. Michael Schwarz, Katja Hogendoorn, Remko Leijs, Steve Shattuck, Archie McArthur and Russell are acknowledged for their hospitality and assistance during fieldwork. This work was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft SFB 554 (C3) and the Graduiertenkolleg ‘Grundlagen des Arthropodenverhaltens’.
PY - 2005/4
Y1 - 2005/4
N2 - Ant queens generally monopolize reproduction, even though workers are able to produce males in orphaned colonies. The mechanisms maintaining worker sterility in the presence of a queen remain inadequately understood. In species with small societies, queens may use agonistic interactions, whereas pheromones are more efficient in large colonies. Whether such pheromones represent coercive tools or honest signals has not been established. We investigated behavioural interactions between queen and workers in the bulldog ant Myrmecia gulosa, a species with limited queen-worker dimorphism and small colonies. About 1.6% of a queen's time budget was spent visiting nest chambers, but there was no aggression and the workers sought contact with their queen, suggesting that pheromones are involved. Cuticular hydrocarbons deposited on the nest substrate by the queen were attractive to workers, but were not necessary for regulating their sterility. Confined queens were able to prevent worker oviposition. Myrmecia gulosa is monogynous and probably monandrous, and workers could maximize their fitness by producing sons and rearing nephews. None the less, they refrained from reproduction in the presence of a fertile queen, even though there was no queen policing. Worker sterility seems to be selected to maximize colony productivity. Our results provide evidence against the notion that queen pheromones inhibit worker oviposition.
AB - Ant queens generally monopolize reproduction, even though workers are able to produce males in orphaned colonies. The mechanisms maintaining worker sterility in the presence of a queen remain inadequately understood. In species with small societies, queens may use agonistic interactions, whereas pheromones are more efficient in large colonies. Whether such pheromones represent coercive tools or honest signals has not been established. We investigated behavioural interactions between queen and workers in the bulldog ant Myrmecia gulosa, a species with limited queen-worker dimorphism and small colonies. About 1.6% of a queen's time budget was spent visiting nest chambers, but there was no aggression and the workers sought contact with their queen, suggesting that pheromones are involved. Cuticular hydrocarbons deposited on the nest substrate by the queen were attractive to workers, but were not necessary for regulating their sterility. Confined queens were able to prevent worker oviposition. Myrmecia gulosa is monogynous and probably monandrous, and workers could maximize their fitness by producing sons and rearing nephews. None the less, they refrained from reproduction in the presence of a fertile queen, even though there was no queen policing. Worker sterility seems to be selected to maximize colony productivity. Our results provide evidence against the notion that queen pheromones inhibit worker oviposition.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.anbehav.2004.07.006
DO - 10.1016/j.anbehav.2004.07.006
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:15744385136
VL - 69
SP - 777
EP - 784
JO - Animal Behaviour
JF - Animal Behaviour
SN - 0003-3472
IS - 4
ER -