Shift from independent to dependent colony foundation and evolution of 'multi-purpose' ergatoid queens in Mystrium ants (subfamily Amblyoponinae)

Division of labour improves fitness in animal societies. In ants, queens reproduce, whereas workers perform all other tasks. However, during independent colony founding, queens live as solitary insects and must be totipotent, especially in species where they need to forage. In many ants, solitary founding has been replaced by dependent founding, where queens are continuously helped by nestmate workers. Little is known about the details of this evolutionary transition. Mystrium rogeri from Madagascar and Mystrium camillae from Southeast Asia (subfamily Amblyoponinae) have winged queens, but three congeneric species from Madagascar reproduce with permanently wingless queens instead. We show that this 'ergatoid' caste has distinct body proportions in all three species, expressing a mixture of both queen and worker traits. Ergatoid queens have functional ovaries and spermatheca, and tiny wing rudiments. They can be as numerous as workers within a colony, but only a few mate and reproduce, whereas most behave as sterile helpers. The shape of their mandibles makes them unsuited for hunting and, together with a lack of metabolic reserves (i.e. in the form of wing muscles), this means that ergatoid queens cannot be solitary foundresses. In comparison with winged queens, ergatoid queens are less costly per capita and they experience lower mortality. They remain in their natal colonies where they can either reproduce or function as helpers, making them a 'multi-purpose' caste. Within the Amblyoponinae, ergatoid queens replace winged queens in Onychomyrmex as well. However, in this genus, ergatoid queens are 'sole-purpose', few are produced each year and they reproduce but do not work. Hence, different types of ergatoid queens evolved to replace winged queens in ants.  © 2009 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society , 2009, 98 , 198–207.     

Toe‐bud clipping of juvenile small marsupials for ecological field research: No detectable negative effects on growth or survival

Toe clipping is widely used to permanently mark many species of small vertebrates including marsupials, particularly didelphids and dasyurids. Small marsupials are marked as juveniles, by removing the tip of developing toe buds. It has recently been shown that survival and/or recapture probability decreases with increasing number of toes clipped in frogs. Because of this and other animal welfare concerns, toe clipping of adult vertebrates is increasingly being discouraged. The short‐ and long‐term effects of toe‐bud clipping have not been evaluated in marsupials. We used an experiment to test if marking more toes results in slower growth or higher mortality in the brown antechinus (Antechinus stuartii, Dasyuridae) in the short or long term. We found no harmful effects of toe‐bud clipping. There were no infections associated with clipping, marking more toes did not reduce growth in young or adults, and did not affect survival of young in captivity, survival of independent animals in the wild, or recapture probability. Toe‐bud clipping is done at an extremely immature stage, when the area cut is tiny and perception and memory of pain is unlikely to be a problem. We suggest that toe‐bud clipping is a humane and benign method of permanently marking antechinuses, and probably also the young of other morphologically similar small marsupials.     

Development of Axillary and Leaf-opposed Buds in Rattan Palms

Axillary vegetative buds are present in Calamus, Ceratolobus,and Plectocomiopsis. Two species of Daemonorops Sect. Piptospathaalso have axillary vegetative buds. All species of Daemonoropshave only displaced adnate axillary inflorescence buds. A singlebud is initiated in the axil of the first or second leaf primordiumin a way similar to that for axillary inflorescence buds. Themeristem is displaced during development on to the internodeabove and sometimes on to the base of the leaf above. Leaf-opposedvegetative buds occur in five species of Daemonorops Sect. Cymbospathaand in one species of Daemonorops Sect. Piptospatha. This typeof bud is initiated 180° away from the axil of the firstor second leaf primordium. It is not a displaced axillary bud,but does become adnate to the internode above like the axillarybuds. One or more leaves, transitional between juvenile andadult, on a shoot often subtend both types of buds. Myrialepishas leaf-opposed vegetative buds, but their development wasnot observed. Korthalsia has buds that are displaced about 130°from the leaf axil and are intermediate between the axillaryand the leaf-opposed condition. Other forms of vegetative budsare described: multiple buds in Plectocomia, aerial forkingin Korthalsia, and suckering from inflorescences and from aerialstems in Calamus. bud development, rattan palms, palm taxonomy, branching     

Physical and biological conditions on a steep intertidal gradient at Rottnest Island,Western Australia

Seven species of grazing molluscs, two littorinids, one nerite, three limpets and one chiton, lived on the vertical intertidal rock wall at the landward edge of the coastal limestone platforms at Rottnest Island, Western Australia. On the average, the vertical ranges of these species overlapped broadly, although a consistent zonation pattern was conspicuous from the platform surface upwards for 2 m. On these vertical intertidal shores, physical and biological conditions were predicted quantitatively from easily made measurements of vertical height on the shore; the percentage of time any shore level was immersed in seawater, the percent weight loss of plaster clods, the standing crop of algae, and the growth rate of the limpet, Notoacmea onychitis, all decreased linearly or semi-logarithmically with increasing height on the shore. The standing crop of animals was greatest, largely due to the presence of the chiton, between 40 and 70 cm from the platform surface and decreased rapidly down the shore and more gradually towards higher shore levels. We interpret this information and the positive correlation between algal production rate, and egestion rate of the animal community at various levels of the shore as evidence supporting the idea that food may be in short supply on these shores.