Oettler, Jan and Dijkstra, Michiel B. and Heinze, Juergen (2013) Egg-Laying "Intermorphs'' in the Ant Crematogaster smithi neither Affect Sexual Production nor Male Parentage. PLOS ONE, 8 (10): e75278. ISSN 1932-6203,
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We study male parentage and between-colony variation in sex allocation and sexual production in the desert ant Crematogaster smithi, which usually has only one singly-mated queen per nest. Colonies of this species are known to temporarily store nutrients in the large fat body of intermorphs, a specialized female caste intermediate in morphology between queens and workers. Intermorphs repackage at least part of this fat into consumable but viable male-destined eggs. If these eggs sometimes develop instead of being eaten, intermorphs will be reproductive competitors of the queen but-due to relatedness asymmetries-allies of their sister worker. Using genetic markers we found a considerable proportion of non-queen sons in some, but not all, colonies. Even though intermorphs produce similar to 1.7 x more eggs than workers, their share in the parentage of adult males is estimated to be negligible due to their small number compared to workers. Furthermore, neither colony-level sex allocation nor overall sexual production was correlated with intermorph occurrence or number. We conclude that intermorph-laid eggs typically do not survive and that the storage of nutrients and their redistribution as eggs by intermorphs is effectively altruistic.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | FLORIDA HARVESTER ANT; EUSOCIAL HYMENOPTERA; WORKER REPRODUCTION; ALLOCATION RATIOS; SOCIAL INSECTS; RESOURCE AVAILABILITY; POGONOMYRMEX-BADIUS; INVESTMENT RATIOS; UNFERTILIZED EGGS; QUEEN CONTROL; |
| Subjects: | 500 Science > 590 Zoological sciences |
| Divisions: | Biology, Preclinical Medicine > Institut für Zoologie > Zoologie/Evolutionsbiologie (Prof. Dr. Jürgen Heinze) |
| Depositing User: | Dr. Gernot Deinzer |
| Date Deposited: | 27 Mar 2020 14:26 |
| Last Modified: | 27 Mar 2020 14:26 |
| URI: | https://pred.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/15851 |
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