Do army ant queens re-mate later in life? |
| |
Authors: | D J C Kronauer J J Boomsma |
| |
Institution: | (1) Institute of Biology, Department of Population Biology, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark |
| |
Abstract: | Queens of eusocial Hymenoptera are inseminated only during a brief period before they start to lay eggs. This has probably
been kin-selected because repeated insemination of old queens would normally be against the inclusive fitness interest of
their daughter workers. Army ants have been considered to be the only possible exception to this rule due to their idiosyncratic
life-history. We studied two distantly related species of army ants, the African Dorylus (Anomma) molestus and the Neotropical Eciton burchellii and present data from microsatellite genotyping, behavioural observations and sperm counts.We also describe the copulation
behaviour of African army ants for the first time. Our results strongly suggest that, contradictory to earlier contentions,
army ant queens do not mate repeatedly throughout their life and thus do not constitute an exception among the eusocial Hymenoptera
in this respect. Sperm counts for males and queens of both species show that army ant queens have to mate with several males
to become fully inseminated. However, sperm limitation by queens is unlikely to have been the prime reason for the evolution
of high queen-mating frequencies in this group.
Received 5 July 2006; revised 26 September 2006; accepted 11 October 2006. |
| |
Keywords: | Eciton Dorylus sperm storage copulation kin selection |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|