Inter-colonial selection for the maintenance of cooperative breeding in the ant Pristomyrmex pungens: a laboratory experiment |
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Authors: | Kazuki Tsuji |
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Institution: | (1) Laboratory of Applied Entomology, Faculty of Agriculture, Nagoya University, 464-01 Nagoya, Japan;(2) Present address: Theodor-Boveri-Institut der Universität Würzburg, Lehrstuhl für Verhaltensphysiologie and Soziobiologie, Am Hubland, D-97074 Würzburg, Germany |
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Abstract: | The queenless ant Pristomyrmex pungens has an unusual social structure, in which all workers reproduce parthenogenetically and help others. Laboratory experiments manipulating the proportion of post-reproductive foragers in the colony at various rates suggested that colonies with 5–10% forager ratios had the maximum efficiency per-worker. This result suggests that the cooperative colonies may be maintained by colony-level natural selection. Non-cooperative mutants that oviposit but do not forage should increase in relative frequency in the colony in the short term. However, decreased colony productivity and the resulting competition among colonies might eliminate colonies dominated by such mutants in the long term. P. pungens has a viscous population without migration between colonies, which may facilitate this process. |
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Keywords: | Maintenance of cooperation Division of labor Interdemic selection Proportion of forager Behavioral flexibility |
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