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Worker caste determination in the army ant Eciton burchellii
Authors:Jaffé Rodolfo  Kronauer Daniel J C  Kraus F Bernhard  Boomsma Jacobus J  Moritz Robin F A
Affiliation:1.Institut für Biologie, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Hoher Weg 4, 06099 Halle/Saale, Germany;2.Department of Population Biology, Institute of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark;3.El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR), Carretera Antiguo Aeropuerto km 2.5, C.P. 30700 Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico
Abstract:Elaborate division of labour has contributed significantly to the ecological success of social insects. Division of labour is achieved either by behavioural task specialization or by morphological specialization of colony members. In physical caste systems, the diet and rearing environment of developing larvae is known to determine the phenotype of adult individuals, but recent studies have shown that genetic components also contribute to the determination of worker caste. One of the most extreme cases of worker caste differentiation occurs in the army ant genus Eciton, where queens mate with many males and colonies are therefore composed of numerous full-sister subfamilies. This high intracolonial genetic diversity, in combination with the extreme caste polymorphism, provides an excellent test system for studying the extent to which caste determination is genetically controlled. Here we show that genetic effects contribute significantly to worker caste fate in Eciton burchellii. We conclude that the combination of polyandry and genetic variation for caste determination may have facilitated the evolution of worker caste diversity in some lineages of social insects.
Keywords:division of labour   polyandry   multiple mating   worker polymorphism   social insects
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