Heinze, Juergen and Weber, Matthias (2011) Lethal sibling rivalry for nest inheritance among virgin ant queens. JOURNAL OF ETHOLOGY, 29 (1). pp. 197-201. ISSN 0289-0771, 1439-5444
Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)Abstract
Fights among conspecific animals are normally restricted to ritualized interactions. They may escalate to serious injury and death when the contested resource has a very high value and the chances of finding alternative resources later in life are low. This appears to be the case in young queens of the ant Cardiocondyla "latifrons", a species that builds its nests in rather stable rock crevices. Young queens in small colonies without a mature queen fought violently for inheritance of the nest site and its workers. Queen aggression and subsequent attacks by workers killed about 50% of the young queens in our experimental nests. Queen killing differs qualitatively from previously reported dominance interactions among prospective female reproductives in other ants, which are mostly ritualized and allow losers to pursue alternative ways of increasing their direct or indirect fitness. Our observations add a novel case of siblicide to the previously reported lethal aggression among nestling birds, parasitoid larvae, and honey bee queens. They corroborate the hypothesis that relatedness does not play a significant role in local competition for highly limited resources.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | DOMINANCE HIERARCHY; COMPETITION; COLONIES; LIFE; BEES; REPRODUCTION; SIBLICIDE; EVOLUTION; MALES; Cardiocondyla; Siblicide; Fatal fighting; Nest inheritance; Local resource competition |
| 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: | 01 Jul 2020 05:32 |
| Last Modified: | 01 Jul 2020 05:32 |
| URI: | https://pred.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/21612 |
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
