The influence of queens of the antParatrechina flavipes on daughter and non-daughter workers, for the suppression of sexual production |
| |
Authors: | Katsuya Ichinose |
| |
Affiliation: | (1) Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences, Ohwashi 1-2, 305 Tsukuba, Ibaraki-ken, Japan |
| |
Abstract: | The influence that the queen ofParatrechina flavipes (Smith) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) has upon workers was investigated in field and laboratory nests. There was no significant difference in sexual production, either of gynes or males, between field queenright and queenless nests of the ant. A replicated laboratory experiment revealed that workers lay fewer eggs and rear fewer sexual larvae in the presence of their mother queen, while this reduction is not observed in workers with influence of non-mother queens. The results seem to support the queen's signal hypothesis by Keller & Nonacs (1993). The contradiction is explained by workers rearing sexuals in queenless satellite nests. There exists a probably complex regulation of the transfer of larvae between satellite and mother nests. |
| |
Keywords: | ant sexual production queen influence colony specificity |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|