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1.
In social insects, the caste systems are based on reproductive division of labor; queens specialize in reproduction and workers
primarily maintain the colony. Recently, a volatile pheromone containing n-butyl-n-butyrate and 2-methyl-1-butanol was identified as a termite queen pheromone that inhibits the differentiation of female neotenic
reproductives (secondary queens). Although this volatile inhibitory pheromone regulates caste differentiation directly, the
method by which it reaches members without direct contact with the queen in large colonies is not well understood. Therefore,
additional mechanisms of indirect communication must exist, such as worker-mediated queen signal transport. We found that
workers exposed to female reproductives did not mediate queens’ inhibitory signal in a termite Reticulitermes speratus. The experiment assessed worker transfer from direct to indirect contact groups and determined that the differentiation of
new female reproductives in the indirect contact groups was not influenced by the direct contact groups, whereas direct contact
with functional female reproductives and artificial queen pheromone did suppress neotenic differentiation. This suggests that
worker transfer of the queen signal is unlikely and that for colony-wide inhibition direct contact by the majority of infertile
members with reproductives or eggs, which emit the same volatiles as female reproductives, is necessary within a certain time
interval. 相似文献
2.
Thelytokous parthenogenesis, the production of diploid female offspring from unfertilized eggs, can be caused by several cytological
mechanisms, which have a different impact on the genetic variation on the offspring. The ponerine ant Platythyrea punctata is widely distributed throughout the Caribbean Islands and Central America and exhibits facultative parthenogenesis. Workers
in many field colonies from the Caribbean Islands have identical multilocus genotypes and are thus probably clonal, but the
occurrence of males makes an ameiotic mechanism of thelytoky unlikely. To clarify the details of thelytoky in this species
we compared the multilocus genotypes of mothers and their offspring in experimental colonies and analyzed the genotypes of
haploid and diploid males. Additionally, we screened a large number of field colonies from thelytokous populations for the
occurrence of recombination events. According to these data, automixis with central fusion and a reduced recombination rate
is the most likely mechanism of thelytoky, as in the Cape honeybee and the ant Cataglyphis cursor. 相似文献
3.
Workers of the Florida harvester ant (Pogonomyrmex badius), the only North American Pogonomyrmex with a polymorphic worker caste, produce males when colonies are orphaned. In this study,we assessed the reproductive potential
of workers of each caste group, minors and majors, in the presence and absence of the queen, and tested whether males produced
in natural queen-right colonies are derived from workers. Worker size was positively correlated with ovariole number such
that major workers had approximately double the number of ovarioles as minor workers. The number of vitellogenic oocytes,
a measure of reproductive potential, was greater in major compared to minor workers and increased in both worker castes when
queens were removed. Major workers have greater reproductive potential than minors although they represent a minority within
the colony (~5% of workers are majors). Worker produced eggs were visible in colonies 28 – 35 days after queen removal. This
time lag, from queen removal to egg production, is similar to other ants and bees. Though workers are capable of producing
viable eggs, we found no evidence that they do so in queen-right colonies, suggesting that worker reproduction is controlled
via some social mechanism (self restraint, policing, or inhibition). This result supports predictions of kin selection theory
– that due to multiple mating by the queen workers are more related to queen-produced males than most worker-produced males
and should thus favor reproduction by the queen and inhibit reproduction by other workers.
Received 25 January 2007; revised 1 May 2007; accepted 21 May 2007. 相似文献
4.
Male parentage and queen mating frequency in the bumblebee <Emphasis Type="Italic">Bombus ignitus</Emphasis> (Hymenoptera: bombinae) 总被引:1,自引:0,他引:1
Kin selection theory predicts conflict between queens and workers in the social insect colony with respect to male production.
This conflict arises from the haplodiploid system of sex determination in Hymenoptera that creates relatedness asymmetries
in which workers are more closely related to the sons of other workers than to those of the queen. In annual hymenopteran
societies that are headed by a single queen, the mating frequency of the queen is the only factor that affects the colony
kin structure. Therefore, we examined the mating structure of queens and the parentage of males in a monogynous bumblebee,
Bombus ignitus, using DNA microsatellites. In the seven colonies that were studied, B. ignitus queens mated once, thereby leading to the prediction of conflict between the queen and workers regarding male production.
In each of the five queen-right colonies, the majority of the males (95%) were produced by the colony’s queen. In contrast,
workers produced approximately 47% of all the males in two queenless colonies. These results suggest that male production
in B. ignitus is a conflict between queen and workers. 相似文献
5.
The caste developmental system of the Neotropical termite Constrictotermes cyphergaster was investigated in 12 natural colonies from the semi-arid Caatinga region of northeastern Brazil. Twelve measurements were taken of different body parts of the larvae, workers, presoldiers,
soldiers, nymphs, and alates for morphometric analyses, and principal component analyses (PCA) were performed based on these
parameters. The nymphal line comprised one larval instar, followed by five nymphal instars, and alates, in agreement with
the developmental pattern described for Termitidae species. The apterous line included two larval instars, followed by workers,
presoldiers, and soldiers. Both workers and soldiers were found to be monomorphic and composed only of male specimens, with
only one instar phase each. C. cyphergaster, like most of the Nasutitermitinae, has only male soldiers. The presence of male workers, with only one instar, suggests
a simplified system of differentiation in the apterous line of C. cyphergaster. These patterns, which had not previously been described for ‘full nasute’ Nasutitermitinae, are similar to the differentiation
patterns of the ‘mandibulate nasute’ Cornitermes walkeri. 相似文献
6.
This is the first report on the annual egg production patterns in mature termite colonies in the field. Data on the seasonal
patterns of egg production in field colonies are very important for understanding the annual colony growth schedule, resource
allocation, and population dynamics of the termites. However, collecting the eggs from a sufficient number of colonies is
extremely difficult in Reticulitermes termites because their multiple-site nesting makes it difficult to find the reproductive center of the colonies. Here, we
first show the seasonal pattern of egg production in the subterranean termite Reticulitermes speratus by collecting the reproductive center of ten colonies each month from April through October. We had to destructively examine
dozens of nests to find eggs from enough field colonies each month. Mature field colonies began to produce eggs in late May,
soon after the swarming season, and the egg production rate (EPR) reached its maximum in early July. The eggs hatched until
late October. The EPR was significantly correlated with the average monthly temperature. Additional investigation of the egg
distributions in the nests showed that most eggs were kept around the royal cell, which contained the reproductives. The largest
colony had 109 supplemental queens and 94,023 eggs, suggesting that each queen produced an average of 24.7 eggs per day, based
on the known mean hatching period of an inseminated egg of 34.95±0.12 (SE) days. 相似文献
7.
We estimated queen mating frequency, genetic relatedness among workers, and worker reproduction in Vespa crabro flavofasciata using microsatellite DNA markers. Of 20 colonies examined, 15 contained queens inseminated by a single male, 3 colonies contained queens inseminated by two males, and 2 colonies contained queens inseminated by three males. The genetic relatedness among workers was estimated to be 0.73±0.003 (mean±SE). For this high relatedness, kin selection theory predicts a potential conflict between queens and workers over male production. To verify whether males are derived from queens or workers, 260 males from 13 colonies were genotyped at four microsatellite loci. We found that all of the males were derived from the queens. This finding was further supported by the fact that only 33 of 2,990 workers dissected had developed ovaries. These workers belonged to 2 of the 20 colonies. There was no relationship between queen mating frequency and worker reproduction, and no workers produced male offspring in any of the colonies. These results suggest that male production dominated by queens in V. crabro flavofasciata is possibly due to worker policing. 相似文献
8.
9.
This paper suggests that the nymphs of a specialist predator, Kirkaldyia (=Lethocerus) deyrolli (Belostomatidae: Heteroptera), are indirectly affected by their tadpoles’ prey. K.
deyrolli nymphs and the predator Laccotrephes japonensis (Nepidae: Heteroptera) adults coexist in rice paddy fields. It was predicted that the difference in tadpole density may influence
the K. deyrolli nymph survival rate. We first compared survival rates of the first instar nymphs of K. deyrolli in June (high tadpole density period) and July (low tadpole density period). Secondly, we investigated the survival rate
of K. deyrolli nymphs at different tadpole densities and under the presence or absence of L. japonensis adults to examine whether higher tadpole density moderates predation pressure from L. japonensis adults to K. deyrolli nymphs, e.g., density-mediated indirect effects. As a result of the comparison, the survival rate of K. deyrolli nymphs in June was higher than that in July. For the field experiment, the slopes between the survival rate of K. deyrolli nymphs and tadpole density were positive under both predator presence and absence. However, the slope under the presence
of a predator was steeper than that under absence of the predator (“predator-by-tadpole density interaction” was significant).
These results suggest that a higher tadpole density in June provides an abundant food resource for K. deyrolli nymphs and also moderates predation pressure from L. japonensis. 相似文献
10.
Estimating the population size of social bee colonies in the wild is often difficult because nests are highly cryptic. Because
of the honeybee (Apis mellifera) mating behaviour, which is characterized by multiple mating of queens at drone congregation areas (DCA), it is possible
to use genotypes of drones caught at these areas to infer the number of colonies in a given region. However, DCAs are difficult
to locate and we assess the effectiveness of an alternative sampling technique to determine colony density based on inferring
male genotypes from queen offspring. We compare these methods in the same population of wild honeybees, Apis mellifera scutellata. A set of linked microsatellite loci is used to decrease the frequency of recombination among marker loci and therefore increase
the precision of the estimates. Estimates of population size obtained through sampling of queen offspring is significantly
larger than that obtained by sampling drones at DCAs. This difference may be due to the more extensive flying range of queens
compared with drones on mating flights. We estimate that the population size sampled through queen offspring is about double
that sampled through drones. 相似文献
11.
Reproductive partitioning among group members is a key feature in social Hymenoptera. We investigated the genetic colony structure of a tropical paper wasp Polistes olivaceus, with an emphasis on variation in the number of queens and reproductive sharing among queens. Among 22 P. olivaceus colonies, 6 were monogynous, 9 polygynous, and 7 were queenless. Adults and brood (eggs and larvae) were genotyped based on six polymorphic microsatellite loci. In each of the polygynous colonies, progenies were assigned to their mothers using maximum-likelihood methods. Nestmate queens were full sisters. The vast majority of reproduction appeared to be monopolized by the dominant queen (α), and the overall reproductive skews were 0.63 ± 0.04 (B index) and 0.97 ± 0.02 (S c index). Although all nestmate queens had equal reproductive potential, the high magnitude of reproductive skew was enigmatic in this species. Although 9.55 ± 2.07 workers contained developed ovaries in 11 of 15 queen-right colonies, they were unrelated to the nestmate queens but related to each other as full sisters, suggesting that they were the remaining offspring of superseded queens. In 2 of the 11 colonies, we detected male eggs produced by reproductive workers. On average, 7.27 % of the total genotyped male eggs were derived from reproductive workers among the colonies. These results suggest three possibilities regarding the presence of reproductive workers in the P. olivaceus colonies: drifting between colonies, putative remaining offspring from superseded queens, and the offspring of unrelated females who joined the colonies and reproduced there. We found no worker-derived larvae or adult males, suggesting that male eggs were removed by nestmates at some point between oviposition and hatching. 相似文献
12.
Some burrower bugs (Heteroptera: Cydnidae) show complex patterns of maternal care, including defense against predators and
the provisioning of food to nymphs. Recently, the subsocial cydnid bugs have attracted the interest of researchers as model
systems to study the behavioral ecology of parental investment. However, there have been few attempts to quantify the fitness
benefits of maternal behavior other than provisioning. Here, we examined the maternal behavior of Adomerus triguttulus and its adaptive significance in terms of offspring survival in the field. A. triguttulus young depend on fallen nutlets of myrmecophorous mints, Lamium spp. Under field conditions, females attend offspring, from eggs to second instar nymphs, in nests on the ground under the
litter. When disturbed, the females showed aggressive responses against the source of disturbance. The females often carried
spherical clutches of eggs away from the nest when heavily disturbed. Female-removal experiments in the field demonstrated
a defensive function of the female behavior; predators, such as ants, attacked egg clutches without females and the clutches
often disappeared during the experiment. Egg clutches without females sometimes also suffered from fungal infection. Selective
factors on maternal defensive behavior in A. triguttulus are discussed in terms of habitat properties possibly emerging from insect–plant associations. 相似文献
13.
Abigail C. Ross Leila M. Porter Michael L. Power Vince Sodaro 《Primates; journal of primatology》2010,51(4):315-325
Callimico goeldii gives birth to single offspring, whereas other callitrichids, including Callithrix jacchus, twin. This study compares maternal effort and infant development in C. goeldii and C. jacchus; it is the first study to look at nursing frequency. Infants were observed from birth for 7 weeks in two captive groups each
of C. goeldii and C. jacchus. C. goeldii mothers physiologically invested the same or less than C. jacchus mothers. C. goeldii mothers gained the same amount of weight during pregnancy in absolute terms as did the smaller C. jacchus. This results in a smaller gain in proportion to maternal weight but an equivalent proportional gain on a per fetus basis.
C. goeldii mothers nursed their infants less based on duration of nursing bouts compared with C. jacchus mothers. C. goeldii mothers transported their infants exclusively through the first 2 weeks of life, which is longer than C. jacchus mothers, who exclusively transported infants only during the first week of life. As maternal infant carriage declined, other
group members transported offspring in both species. C. goeldii infants engaged in independent locomotive sequences later in development and tasted solid foods less frequently than C. jacchus infants when compared at equivalent ages. A single, opportunistic milk sample obtained from a C. goeldii mother when her infant was 48 days old indicates that C. goeldii milk contains gross energy from crude protein within the range of variation observed in Callithrix milk. Despite the similarities in milk quality and prenatal effort in individual fetuses, C. goeldii infants gain weight faster from 0 to 18 months than do C. jacchus infants. A reduction in litter size allows C. goeldii mothers to spend more time carrying their infant and to delay weaning, thereby allowing accelerated infant and juvenile growth
rates compared with C. jacchus. 相似文献
14.
Ken Tan Zheng-Wei Wang Mingxian Yang Randall Hepburn Sarah Radloff 《Journal of Insect Behavior》2010,23(5):381-388
Nestmate recognition in Apis cerana and Apis mellifera was studied by introducing sealed queen cells heterospecifically between queenless colonies. No A. cerana queens were accepted by queenless A. mellifera; but A. mellifera queens were accepted in queenless A. cerana colonies. A. mellifera queens oviposited in queenless A. cerana colonies, but A. cerana workers removed most eggs. In time, egg removals declined, and some A. mellifera larvae that hatched from these eggs reached adulthood, and eventually about half of the workers were newly emerged A. mellifera. Eventually, the colonies consisted only of A. mellifera after A. cerana workers died by attrition. A. mellifera workers are more sensitive to nestmate recognition and killed the A. cerana virgin queens. In mixed-species colonies, after newly emerged A. mellifera workers matured, they removed eggs laid by the A. cerana queens until there were no workers to replace the old ones. 相似文献
15.
M. J. Sommeijer L. L. M. de Bruijn F. J. A. J. Meeuwsen E. P. Martens 《Insectes Sociaux》2003,50(1):38-44
Summary. This paper is the report of a long-duration study of the production of gynes and males in Melipona stingless bees in Trinidad and Tobago, including a behavioural study of laying workers. In 167 brood samples (16342 pupae) of M. favosa, taken from 78 colonies in the natural environment over the years 1993-2001, workers represented 78.4% and males represented 17.3%. Gynes represented 5.1% of all female brood. Gyne proportion never exceeded 22.5%. Gynes were found to be common throughout the year. Like the gynes, males were present all year, but their occurrence varied over the months. Males were most common in the months of July and August. At the colony level male occurrence in the brood was characterized by very high values (maximum 74.2%), next to a frequent complete absence (in 26.5% of all samples). The finding of bout-like production of males at the colony level is supported by the observations on reproductive worker behaviour. The colonies appeared to be in different phases of male production. When male producing laying workers were present, they competed heavily for egg-laying opportunities. Various behaviours of laying workers and the queen are described and interpreted on the basis of reproductive competition and kin conflict theories. From these results, we conclude that in M. favosa, workers have a distinct influence on reproduction, including the production of gynes and males. 相似文献
16.
Summary. Facultative parthenogenesis has great adaptive significance, especially with regard to low pairing efficiency. In the termite Reticulitermes speratus, females that fail to mate with males reproduce parthenogenetically and found colonies cooperatively with partner females or even alone. Comparison of colony foundation success at 400 days between colonies founded by single females (F), female-female pairs (FF), and male-female pairs (FM) showed that female-female cooperation promoted colony survivorship over monogamous foundation. We report here for the first time the mode of parthenogenesis in Isoptera. Combining chromosome observations and genetic analysis using microsatellites, we show that the mode of parthenogenesis is diploid thelytoky and that the restoration of ploidy is most likely accomplished by terminal fusion. Parthenogens show a higher mortality and a longer egg-development time than sexually produced offspring, probably due to reduced heterozygosity. In addition Wolbachia bacteria were detected in R. speratus. However, since Wolbachia was also detected in non-parthenogenetic R. flavipes, it is unlikely that Wolbachia is the cause of parthenogenesis in R. speratus.Received 30 October 2003; revised 4 March 2004; accepted 17 March 2004. 相似文献
17.
18.
Tan K Yang M Wang Z Radloff SE Pirk CW 《Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology》2012,198(4):319-323
When a honeybee colony loses its queen, workers activate their ovaries and begin to lay eggs. This is accompanied by a shift
in their pheromonal bouquet, which becomes more queen like. Workers of the Asian hive bee Apis cerana show unusually high levels of ovary activation and this can be interpreted as evidence for a recent evolutionary arms race
between queens and workers over worker reproduction in this species. To further explore this, we compared the rate of pheromonal
bouquet change between two honeybee sister species of Apis cerana and Apis mellifera under queenright and queenless conditions. We show that in both species, the pheromonal components HOB, 9-ODA, HVA, 9-HDA, 10-HDAA and 10-HDA have significantly higher
amounts in laying workers than in non-laying workers. In the queenright colonies of A. mellifera and A. cerana, the ratios (9-ODA)/(9-ODA + 9-HDA + 10-HDAA + 10-HDA) are not significantly different between the two species, but in queenless
A. cerana colonies the ratio is significant higher than in A. mellifera, suggesting that in A. cerana, the workers’ pheromonal bouquet is dominated by the queen compound, 9-ODA. The amount of 9-ODA in laying A. cerana workers increased by over 585% compared with the non-laying workers, that is 6.75 times higher than in A. mellifera where laying workers only had 86% more 9-ODA compared with non-laying workers. 相似文献
19.
Selection on traits conferring reduced predation may be opposed by selection on other traits associated with reproduction.
Here, we examined the hypothesis that traits associated with reproduction in Gammarus pulex are driven by predation. We studied G. pulex originating from ponds with two different kinds of predator regimes: (1) ponds with fish—often large, non-gap-limited predators
and (2) ponds without fish where invertebrates are the dominant predators—often small, gap-limited predators with a much more
restricted prey size range. We examined the body size of males and females in G. pulex amplexus pairs originating from fish and fishless ponds. We also examined, in the laboratory, their mating success, the number
of offspring per female and offspring mortality under different rearing conditions, with or without fish cue. Mating success,
defined as the percentage of amplexus pairs that produced live offspring, was higher for G. pulex from fishless ponds independent of rearing condition. Individuals from fish ponds were larger and they produced a higher
number of offspring which tended to be related to female body size. Offspring mortality was higher in populations from fish
ponds compared to populations from fishless ponds. Despite the higher offspring mortality, females from fish ponds had a higher
number of offspring alive after 13 weeks, which is the approximate time it takes for G. pulex to reach maturity. Our data imply that no trade-off between reducing body size to reduce mortality caused by fish and maximising
reproductive success exist in G. pulex from fish ponds. The strategy with many offspring may be the correct strategy in fishponds where predation pressure generally
is higher than in fishless ponds. 相似文献
20.
Pleometrosis (colony founding by multiple queens) may improve life history characteristics that are important for early colony survival. When queens unite their initial brood, the number of workers present when incipient colonies open may be higher than for single queen colonies. Further, the time until the first worker emerges may shorten. For territorial species and species that rob brood from neighbouring colonies, a faster production of more workers may improve the chance of surviving intraspecific competition. In this study, the time from the nuptial flight to the emergence of the first worker in incipient Oecophylla smaragdina Fabr. colonies founded by 1–5 queens was compared and the production of brood during the first 68 days after the nuptial flight was assessed. Compared to haplometrotic colonies, pleometrotic colonies produced 3.2 times more workers, their first worker emerged on average 4.3 days (8%) earlier and the queen’s per capita egg production almost doubled. Further, colony production was positively, correlated with the number of founding queens and time to worker emergence was negatively correlated. These results indicate that pleometrotic O. smaragdina colo-nies are competitively superior to haplometrotic colonies as they produce more workers faster and shorten the claustral phase, leading to increased queen fecundity. 相似文献