Heinze, Juergen and Oberstadt, B. (2003) Costs and benefits of subordinate queens in colonies of the ant, Leptothorax gredleri. NATURWISSENSCHAFTEN, 90 (11). pp. 513-516. ISSN 0028-1042, 1432-1904
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
Queens of some species of social insects form dominance hierarchies in which only the top-ranking individual reproduces. Such unequal partitioning of reproduction can be stable when subordinate queens increase their inclusive fitness indirectly by helping to rear a related dominant queen's offspring. We investigated whether subordinate queens of the ant, Leptothorax gredleri, affect the reproductive success of the dominant queen. In laboratory colonies with two queens, first eggs were laid approximately 20 days later than in colonies with a single queen, presumably due to aggressive competition among nestmate queens. Nevertheless, two-queen colonies produced on average more brood than one-queen colonies, although egg laying was completely or almost completely monopolized by one single queen. The presence of a subordinate queen therefore appears to increase the productivity of the dominant.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | REPRODUCTIVE SKEW; EGG CANNIBALISM; HYMENOPTERA; FORMICIDAE; FERTILITY; EVOLUTION; BEHAVIOR; |
| 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 Jul 2021 12:19 |
| Last Modified: | 27 Jul 2021 12:19 |
| URI: | https://pred.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/38483 |
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