Stroeymeyt, Nathalie and Brunner, Elisabeth and Heinze, Juergen (2007) Selfish worker policing controls reproduction in a Temnothorax ant. BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY AND SOCIOBIOLOGY, 61 (9). pp. 1449-1457. ISSN 0340-5443, 1432-0762
Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)Abstract
Animal societies, including those of humans, are under constant threat by selfish individuals, who attempt to enforce their own interests at the cost of the group. In the societies of bees, wasps, and ants, such individual selfishness can be prevented by "policing," whereby workers or queens impede the reproduction of other individuals by aggression, immobilization, or egg eating. In this study, we report on a particular kind of reproduction control in the ant Temnothorax unifasciatus, which can be considered as a selfish act itself. We experimentally induced workers to lay eggs by dividing several colonies into two halves, one with and one without a queen. In queenless colonies, workers established rank orders by aggression and several top-ranking workers started to reproduce. Upon reunification, egg-laying workers mostly stopped behaving aggressively. They were neither attacked by the queen nor by random workers, but instead received infrequent, nondestructive, targeted aggression from a few workers, most of which became fertile when the queen was later removed. The introduction of differentially stained worker-laid and queen-laid eggs in queenright fragments did not lead to a selective removal of worker-laid eggs. Hence, there appears to be no collective worker policing in T. unifasciatus. Instead, reproduction appears to be controlled mostly through a few attacks from high-ranking workers, which, in this way, might attempt to selfishly increase their chances of future reproduction.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | COLLECTIVE DECISION-MAKING; MONOGYNOUS QUEENLESS ANT; PONERINE ANT; EUSOCIAL HYMENOPTERA; INSECT SOCIETIES; SOCIAL INSECTS; DIACAMMA SP; LEPTOTHORAX ANTS; HONEY-BEES; CONFLICT; kin conflict; worker policing; dominance; Temnothorax unifasciatus |
| Subjects: | 500 Science > 570 Life sciences 500 Science > 590 Zoological sciences |
| Divisions: | Biology, Preclinical Medicine > Institut für Zoologie Biology, Preclinical Medicine > Institut für Zoologie > Zoologie/Evolutionsbiologie (Prof. Dr. Jürgen Heinze) |
| Depositing User: | Dr. Gernot Deinzer |
| Date Deposited: | 02 Dec 2020 11:33 |
| Last Modified: | 02 Dec 2020 11:33 |
| URI: | https://pred.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/32519 |
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