An experimental study of pleometrotic colony founding in the fire ant, Solenopsis invicta : what is the basis for association?

Many benefits and risks of cooperative colony founding (pleometrosis) have been identified, but rarely have the proximate factors that lead to association been considered. This study examined the choices queens make during the first few hours after mating, and some of the correlates of those choices. Queens had a strong affinity for preformed holes in the soil and readily used these as their initial founding chambers. This affinity was so strong that in a field experiment, the dispersion pattern of preformed holes controlled the final dispersion of colony-founding queens. Attraction to partially formed holes is thus an important cause of pleometrosis. The excavation of complete founding chambers incurred no measurable cost on the subsequent reproductive output of queens, suggesting that the primary benefit of using preformed holes is to remove the queen quickly from exposure to predation and desiccation. In the field, pairs of queens offered five equivalent preformed holes in soil were more likely to share the same hole if the holes were shallow and close together. In these experiments, queens modified preformed soil holes so that the test holes were no longer equivalent, causing the choice of queen and hole to become confounded. Laboratory experiments in plaster arenas with unmodifiable holes confirmed the field experiments: queens were more likely to share a hole when the holes were shallow than when they were deep. Because queens entering adequately deep holes seldom reemerged, this suggested that the likelihood of sharing increased with increasing contact between queens, that is, when queens were readily and frequently detected. Such contacts will also predict the future competitive environments to be experienced by incipient colonies, and may temper the tendency of queens to associate. However, experiments in which queens were exposed to high and low densities before pairing in the choice arenas failed to show an effect on the choice to join the resident queen. Queens that joined a resident queen differed in their robustness from queens that did not join. Queens choosing their own partners did no better reproductively than those assigned partners at random. Overall, this study suggests that (1) newly mated queens are under strong selection to leave the soil surface and do so by using any available holes, whether dug by another queen or of some other origin; (2) they are attracted to other queens, and are more likely to cofound as contact with the potential cofoundress becomes more frequent and (3) they choose whether or not to cofound partly on the basis of their own reproductive characteristics. Received: 20 November 1997 / Accepted after revision: 14 March 1998     

Chemical mimicry in the root aphid parasitoid Paralipsis eikoae Yasumatsu (Hymenoptera: Aphidiidae) of the aphid-attending ant Lasius sakagamii Yamauchi & Hayashida (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Summary. An aphidiid wasp, Paralipsis eikoae, was associated with both Lasius niger and L. sakagamii attending the wormwood root aphid Sappaphis piri. An L. sakagamii worker was observed carrying a winged female P. eikoae to its nest with its mandible, but it did not kill the wasp. Once accepted by the ants, the wasp often mounted and rubbed against the worker ants and sometimes teased them to regurgitate food to itself. No workers in the colony attacked the wasp. Conspecific foreign workers, however, viciously attacked the wasp when encountered. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analyses showed that the accepted wasp had complex cuticular hydrocarbons that were very similar to those of its host ants, whereas the winged wasps collected outside the ant nest showed only a series of n-alkanes. Additionally, the accepted wasp had a hydrocarbon profile closer to that of its host ants than to the conspecific foreign ants. We believe the wasp mimics ant cuticular hydrocarbons to integrate into the ant nest, acquiring the hydrocarbons by mounting and rubbing against the ants. In contrast, the cuticular hydrocarbons of the emerged wasp contained larval and pupal hydrocarbons of L. sakagamii that were also similar to those of L. niger. Both ant species rejected adult workers of the other species but accepted their larvae and pupae. We suggest that the emerged P. eikoae mimics the cuticular hydrocarbons of these Lasius larvae and pupae, which allows P. eikoae to be accepted by both L. sakagamii and L. niger. Received 11 March 1998; accepted 22 July 1998.     

Inter-individual variation in sequestration (as measured by energy dispersive spectroscopy) predicts efficacy of defensive secretion in lubber grasshoppers

Summary. We tested whether inter-individual variation in concentration of sequestered compounds predicts defensive efficacy of the defensive secretion of onion-fed Eastern lubber grasshoppers. When fed onion, lubbers have the ability to sequester sulfur compounds into their defensive secretion, and the secretion from onion-fed lubbers is more deterrent of ants than the secretion from lubbers fed other diets (Jones et al. 1989). To test three hypotheses, we developed a method for measuring total sequestered sulfur in the secretion using energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). First, we found that lubbers fed an ad libitum, monophagous diet of onion produce more secretion and have higher concentrations of total sulfur in their secretions than lubbers fed other diets. These sulfur concentrations varied three-fold; we believe that this variation in the composition of defensive secretions stems from physiological variation. Second, our method was sensitive enough to detect sulfur in the secretion of some lubbers that had been fed onion only once. Third, the sulfur concentration of a secretion sample significantly predicted its ability to deter ants from foraging. Hence, our results suggest that inter-individual variation in defensive chemistry in insects offered the same diet may be ecologically important. Received 25 November 1997; accepted 5 February 1998.     

Heavy metal distribution and bioaccumulation in Chihuahuan Desert Rough Harvester ant (Pogonomyrmex rugosus) populations

Heavy metal contamination can negatively impact arid ecosystems; however a thorough examination of bioaccumulation patterns has not been completed. We analyzed the distribution of As, Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn in soils, seeds and ant (Pogonomyrmex rugosus) populations of the Chihuahuan Desert near El Paso, TX, USA. Concentrations of As, Cd, Cu, and Pb in soils, seeds and ants declined as a function of distance from a now inactive Cu and Pb smelter and all five metals bioaccumulated in the granivorous ants. The average bioaccumulation factors for the metals from seeds to ants ranged from 1.04× (As) to 8.12× (Cd). The findings show bioaccumulation trends in linked trophic levels in an arid ecosystem and further investigation should focus on the impacts of heavy metal contamination at the community level.     

Dynamics of sperm transfer in the ant Leptothorax gredleri

Mating tactics differ remarkably between and within species of social Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, ants) concerning, e.g., mating frequencies, sperm competition, and the degree of male sperm limitation. Although social Hymenoptera might, therefore, potentially be ideal model systems for testing sexual selection theory, the dynamics of mating and sperm transfer have rarely been studied in species other than social bees, and basic information needed to draw conclusions about possible sperm competition and female choice is lacking. We investigated sperm transfer in the ant Leptothorax gredleri, a species in which female sexuals attract males by “female calling.” The analysis of 38 female sexuals fixed immediately or up to 7 days after copulation with a single male each revealed that the sperm is transferred into the female bursa copulatrix embedded in a gelatinous mass, presumably a spermatophore. Sperm cells rapidly start to migrate from the tip of the spermatophore towards the spermatheca, but transfer is drastically slowed down by an extreme constriction of the spermathecal duct, through which sperm cells have to pass virtually one by one. This results in the spermatheca being filled only between one and several hours after mating. During this time, the posterior part of the spermatophore seals the junction between bursa copulatrix and spermathecal duct and prevents sperm loss. The prolonged duration of sperm transfer might allow female sexuals to chose between ejaculates and explain previously reported patterns of single paternity of the offspring of multiply mated queens. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Forest clearing and sex ratio in forest-dwelling wood ant <Emphasis Type="Italic">Formica aquilonia</Emphasis>

Sex ratios of ants have been shown to vary with food resource levels in several studies, but it is not known whether forest clear-cutting has any effect on sex ratio of aphid-tending forest-dwelling ants. We investigated whether the offspring sex ratio of the forest dwelling ant Formica aquilonia varied as a response to clear-cutting. We found that the proportion of males was smaller in clear-cuts than in adjacent forests. Our results are among the first showing that anthropogenic changes in forest structures may have a potential to modify sex ratios of social insects and other forest-dwelling animals.     

Evidence of behavioral co-option from context-dependent variation in mandible use in trap-jaw ants (Odontomachus spp.)

Evolutionary co-option of existing structures for new functions is a powerful yet understudied mechanism for generating novelty. Trap-jaw ants of the predatory genus Odontomachus are capable of some of the fastest self-propelled appendage movements ever recorded; their devastating strikes are not only used to disable and capture prey, but produce enough force to launch the ants into the air. We tested four Odontomachus species in a variety of behavioral contexts to examine if their mandibles have been co-opted for an escape mechanism through ballistic propulsion. We found that nest proximity makes no difference in interactions with prey, but that prey size has a strong influence on the suite of behaviors employed by the ants. In trials involving a potential threat (another trap-jaw ant species), vertical jumps were significantly more common in ants acting as intruders than in residents (i.e. a dangerous context), while horizontal jumps occurred at the same rate in both contexts. Additionally, horizontal jump trajectories were heavily influenced by the angle at which the substrate was struck and appear to be under little control by the ant. We conclude that while horizontal jumps may be accidental side-effects of strikes against hard surfaces, vertical escape jumps are likely intentional defensive behaviors that have been co-opted from the original prey-gathering and food-processing functions of Odontomachus jaws.