Hartmann, Anne and Heinze, Juergen (2003) Lay eggs, live longer: Division of labor and life span in a clonal ant species. EVOLUTION, 57 (10). pp. 2424-2429. ISSN 0014-3820, 1558-5646
Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)Abstract
Due to a trade-off between reproduction and life span, highly fertile individuals often live shorter lives than nonreproductive conspecifics. Perennial eusocial insects are exceptional in that reproductive queens live considerably longer than the nonreproductive workers. The two female castes may differ strongly in morphology, ontogeny, physiology, diet, behavior, and mating, and all these differences could be responsible for life span differences. In the ponerine ant Platythyrea punctata, morphological and ontogenetic caste differences do not exist. Instead, all workers are capable of producing diploid offspring through thelytokous parthenogenesis, and colonies are essentially clones. Here, we show that reproductives live significantly longer than nonreproductive workers. Reproductives stay in the nest during their whole life, whereas nonreproductives switch from intrarvidal tasks to foraging when they get older. Different work load and different hormone titers might proximately underlie the different life span of reproductives and nonreproductives in this ant.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | DROSOPHILA-MELANOGASTER FEMALES; WORKER HONEY-BEES; JUVENILE-HORMONE; PLATYTHYREA-PUNCTATA; NATURAL-SELECTION; APIS-MELLIFERA; EVOLUTIONARY-THEORIES; HEMOLYMPH TITERS; QUEENLESS ANT; PONERINE ANT; aging; division of labor; life span; Platythyrea; thelytokous ant |
| 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: | 28 Jul 2021 11:10 |
| Last Modified: | 28 Jul 2021 11:10 |
| URI: | https://pred.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/38546 |
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