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1.
We document the variation in number of queens occurring naturally in founding, immature and mature nests of the ant Formica podzolica, and compare development of colonies and survivorship of queens in experimental nests started with 1–16 foundresses. Number of queens per nest was associated with stage of colony development. Most nests were monogynous, but 20% of immature nests (n = 66) and 25% of mature nests (n = 92) were oligogynous or polygynous. Colonies were usually established by single queens (i.e., haplometrosis), but colony establishment by multiple queens (i.e., pleometrotis) was also common, occurring in 27% of founding nests (n = 492). Foundress groups in the field were small ( = 1.47 ± 0.04 queens/nest), and large groups experienced high mortality and low productivity in artificial nests. Therefore, the many queens (up to 140) in some immature and mature colonies were probably secondarily pleometrotic. Experimental nests started with 1–4 queens were more successful than those initiated by 8 or 16 queens. Small groups (2–4 queens) produced more pupae before the first nests reared workers than single foundresses or larger groups (8 or 16 queens). Although single foundresses were less productive than queens in small groups, they experienced greater survivorship and less weight loss than queens in pleometrotic associations. Besides low productivity, queen mortality and weight loss were greatest in large groups. 相似文献
2.
Wolfgang Völkl 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2001,49(2-3):135-144
Pauesia picta, P. pinicollis and P. silvestris (Hymenoptera: Aphidiidae) are common parasitoids of the conifer aphid Cinara pinea, which is regularly attended by red wood ants (Formica spp.). In this study, I tested whether females of these parasitoid species learned during interactions with honeydew-collecting Formica polyctena workers that caution is not necessary if searching behaviour is adapted, and whether parasitoids benefit from being able
to learn. When searching on Scots pines, naive females of P. picta and P. pinicollis generally retreated to a pine needle when making contact with a honeydew-collecting ant, did not approach ants from the side
or from the front and kept a ”safe distance” from ants when sitting on needles. After some non- aggressive ant encounters,
experienced female parasitoids changed their behaviour: they reduced their searching speed, approached ants from the side
and even from the front, retreated less often in response to an approaching ant and reduced the ”safe distance”. These experienced
females had a significantly higher rate of oviposition than naive females or females foraging for an unattended host. Thus,
the ability of the parasitoid to learn during interactions with an antagonist led to a prolonged retention time and a higher
oviposition rate. By contrast, there was no evidence of learning in P. silvestris. Females of this species showed no behavioural change in response to ant encounters, and there was no difference in the foraging
success of naive and experienced female parasitoids.
Received: 7 December 1999 / Revised: 23 September 2000 / Accepted: 10 March 2000 相似文献
3.
In populations of various ant species, many queens reproduce in the same nest (polygyny), and colony boundaries appear to
be absent with individuals able to move freely between nests (unicoloniality). Such societies depart strongly from a simple
family structure and pose a potential challenge to kin selection theory, because high queen number coupled with unrestricted
gene flow among nests should result in levels of relatedness among nestmates close to zero. This study investigated the breeding
system and genetic structure of a highly polygynous and largely unicolonial population of the wood ant Formica paralugubris. A microsatellite analysis revealed that nestmate workers, reproductive queens and reproductive males (the queens' mates)
are all equally related to each other, with relatedness estimates centring around 0.14. This suggests that most of the queens
and males reproducing in the study population had mated within or close to their natal nest, and that the queens did not disperse
far after mating. We developed a theoretical model to investigate how the breeding system affects the relatedness structure
of polygynous colonies. By combining the model and our empirical data, it was estimated that about 99.8% of the reproducing
queens and males originated from within the nest, or from a nearby nest. This high rate of local mating and the rarity of
long-distance dispersal maintain significant relatedness among nestmates, and contrast with the common view that unicoloniality
is coupled with unrestricted gene flow among nests.
Received: 8 February 1999 / Received in revised form: 15 June 1999 / Accepted: 19 June 1999 相似文献
4.
M. Beye P. Neumann M. Chapuisat P. Pamilo R. F. A. Moritz 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》1998,43(1):67-72
Genetic relatedness of the mound-building ant Formica pratensis was determined by means of microsatellite DNA polymorphism, and its impact on nestmate recognition was tested in a population
in Southern Sweden (Oeland). Recognition between nests was measured by testing aggression levels between single pairs of workers.
The genetic distances of nests (Nei's genetic distance) and the spatial distance of nests were correlated and both showed
a strong relation to the aggression behavior. Multiple regression analysis revealed a stronger impact of genetic relatedness
rather than spatial distances on aggression behavior. Neighbouring nests were more closely related than distant nests, which
may reflect budding as a possible spreading mechanism. The genetic distance data showed that nestmate recognition was strongly
genetically influenced in F. pratensis.
Received: 2 October 1997 / Accepted after revision: 10 January 1998 相似文献
5.
6.
Mutualistic relationships between ants and aphids are well studied but it is unknown if aphid-attending ants place a greater relative importance on defending aphids from aphid-predators or from competing ant colonies. We tested the hypothesis that aphid-attending ants defend their aphids against aphid-predators more aggressively than against ants from neighboring colonies. We conducted introduction trials by placing an individual non-predatory insect, an aphid-predator, or a foreign conspecific ant on the leaf of a resident ant. We found that ants did not attack non-predatory insects, but did attack competing ants and aphid-predators. When we presented resident ants with both the threats (i.e., predator and competitor) at the same time, residents always attacked potential competitors as opposed to aphid-predators. We suggest this behavior may reduce the likelihood of raids by neighboring colonies. Ants appear to balance both the energetic costs of making an attack and the costs associated with losing aphids to a predator, against the benefits of signaling their defensive ability to rivals and/or preventing rivals from gaining knowledge of a potential food resource. 相似文献
7.
Heikki Helanterä Stephen J. Martin Francis L. W. Ratnieks 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2007,62(2):223-228
We studied the effect of prior experience to eggs laid by nestmate and non-nestmate queens on the acceptance of queen-laid
eggs by worker wood ants, Formica fusca. We transferred eggs from a non-nestmate queen into colonies during early spring, when their own queen was recommencing egg
laying. A few weeks later, workers from these “experienced” colonies accepted eggs of both familiar (44% acceptance) and unfamiliar
(40%) non-nestmate queens much more than workers from control colonies (2%) that had only had previous contact with their
own queen’s eggs. Thus, prior exposure to eggs laid by a non-nestmate queen induces much greater acceptance of all non-nestmate
queen-laid eggs. Mechanistically, we hypothesize that exposure to eggs from several queens may increase acceptance by causing
a highly permissive acceptance threshold of non-nestmate queen-laid eggs rather than by widening the template for acceptable
queen-laid eggs. These novel results show that egg-discrimination behaviour in F. fusca is flexible and that workers respond to the diversity of eggs experienced in their colony. 相似文献
8.
The effect of local ant species on the dispersal success of a myrmecochorous plant, Helleborus foetidus, was analyzed in two populations of the Iberian Peninsula (Caurel and Cazorla, respectively). The contribution of the various
local ant species to dispersal was very unequal. While 5 and 19 ant taxa visited the plants of Caurel and Cazorla, respectively,
most removal activity (67 and 80%) was performed by two species only (Formica lugubris and Camponotus cruentatus, respectively). Visits by dispersers were also unequally distributed between neighboring plants. While some plants were always
visited during the period of seed release, others were never visited. A regression model indicated that this pattern might
be explained by two plant traits: ants preferred to visit plants that released more seeds and whose elaiosomes were richer
in oleic acid. Although it has long been known that this compound triggers removal by ants, it is the first demonstration
that quantitative variations in elaiosome traits contribute to variation in dispersal success. Finally, other variables being
equal, morphological traits (seed size, elaiosome size, and elaiosome/seed size ratio) did not affect ant behavior. Although
myrmecochory has long been considered a diffuse interaction, our results support the idea that, at local scale, a limited
number of ant species may be decisive to its evolution. 相似文献
9.
Informational constraints can be an important limitation on the accuracy of recognition. One potential constraint is the use
of recognition information from the same sources in multiple discriminatory contexts. Worker wood ants, Formica fusca, discriminate eggs based on their maternal sources of origin in two main contexts: recognition of eggs laid by nestmate versus
non-nestmate queens and recognition of worker-laid versus queen-laid eggs. We manipulated the experience of F. fusca workers in laboratory colonies to both worker-laid and queen-laid eggs by transferring eggs between colonies in order to
investigate whether these two contexts of egg discrimination are independent. Experience of non-nestmate queen-laid eggs significantly
increased worker acceptance of both familiar (18% accepted) and unfamiliar (10%) queen-laid eggs compared to control workers
without experience of eggs other than those laid by their own colony’s queen (2%). In contrast, worker acceptance of worker-laid
eggs was not affected by variation in the egg experience of workers (14% in workers from control colonies exposed only to
eggs from their own colony’s queen versus 19% and 17% in workers from colonies which had received eggs laid by either a non-nestmate
queen or nestmate workers, respectively). Our results suggest that these two recognition contexts do not strongly constrain
each other and are different in their ontogeny. In particular, worker-laid eggs are universally discriminated against by workers
from colonies with a queen whatever the egg experience of the workers, while non-nestmate queen-laid eggs are strongly discriminated
against only by workers without experience of eggs laid by more than one queen. 相似文献
10.
Shape and efficiency of wood ant foraging networks 总被引:2,自引:1,他引:1
Jerome Buhl Kerri Hicks Esther R. Miller Sophie Persey Ola Alinvi David J. T. Sumpter 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2009,63(3):451-460
We measured the shape of the foraging trail networks of 11 colonies of the wood ant Formica aquilonia (Formica rufa group). We characterized these networks in terms of their degree of branching and the angles between branches, as well as
in terms of their efficiency. The measured networks were compared with idealized model networks built to optimize one of two
components of efficiency, total length (i.e., total amount of trail) and route factor (i.e., average distance between nest
and foraging site). The analysis shows that the networks built by the ants obtain a compromise between the two modes of efficiency.
These results are largely independent of the size of the network or colony size. The ants’ efficiency is comparable to that
of networks built by humans but achieved without the benefit of centralized control. 相似文献