Egg-Laying "Intermorphs" in the Ant Crematogaster smithi neither Affect Sexual Production nor Male Parentage.
Details
State: Serval
Version: author
Serval ID
serval:BIB_8D6C8439D05F
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Fund
Title
Egg-Laying "Intermorphs" in the Ant Crematogaster smithi neither Affect Sexual Production nor Male Parentage.
Journal
PLoS One
ISSN
1932-6203 (Electronic)
ISSN-L
1932-6203
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2013
Volume
8
Number
10
Pages
e75278
Language
english
Abstract
We study male parentage and between-colony variation in sex allocation and sexual production in the desert ant Crematogaster smithi, which usually has only one singly-mated queen per nest. Colonies of this species are known to temporarily store nutrients in the large fat body of intermorphs, a specialized female caste intermediate in morphology between queens and workers. Intermorphs repackage at least part of this fat into consumable but viable male-destined eggs. If these eggs sometimes develop instead of being eaten, intermorphs will be reproductive competitors of the queen but-due to relatedness asymmetries-allies of their sister worker. Using genetic markers we found a considerable proportion of non-queen sons in some, but not all, colonies. Even though intermorphs produce ∼1.7× more eggs than workers, their share in the parentage of adult males is estimated to be negligible due to their small number compared to workers. Furthermore, neither colony-level sex allocation nor overall sexual production was correlated with intermorph occurrence or number. We conclude that intermorph-laid eggs typically do not survive and that the storage of nutrients and their redistribution as eggs by intermorphs is effectively altruistic.
Pubmed
Web of science
Create date
14/11/2013 10:46
Last modification date
03/03/2018 19:15