Extreme queen-mating frequency and colony fission in African army ants

Molecular Ecology
Daniel J C KronauerJurgen Gadau

Abstract

Army ants have long been suspected to represent an independent origin of multiple queen-mating in the social Hymenoptera. Using microsatellite markers, we show that queens of the African army ant Dorylus (Anomma) molestus have the highest absolute (17.3) and effective (17.5) queen-mating frequencies reported so far for ants. This confirms that obligate multiple queen-mating in social insects is associated with large colony size and advanced social organization, but also raises several novel questions. First, these high estimates place army ants in the range of mating frequencies of honeybees, which have so far been regarded as odd exceptions within the social Hymenoptera. Army ants and honeybees are fundamentally different in morphology and life history, but are the only social insects known that combine obligate multiple mating with reproduction by colony fission and extremely male-biased sex ratios. This implies that the very high numbers of matings in both groups may be due partly to the relatively low costs of additional matings. Second, we were able to trace recent events of colony fission in four of the investigated colonies, where the genotypes of the two queens were only compatible with a mother-daughter relationship. A...Continue Reading

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Citations

May 6, 2006·Die Naturwissenschaften·Daniel J C KronauerJacobus J Boomsma
Jul 20, 2007·Biology Letters·Rodolfo JafféRobin F A Moritz
Mar 28, 2008·Biology Letters·Olav RueppellJan Rychtár
Oct 4, 2006·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Thomas D Seeley, David R Tarpy
Jan 17, 2008·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Heather R MattilaThomas D Seeley
Aug 21, 2009·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Juliana RangelThomas D Seeley
Nov 6, 2009·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Daniel J C KronauerJacobus J Boomsma
Nov 29, 2013·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Benjamin P OldroydMadeleine Beekman
Aug 24, 2011·Frontiers in Zoology·Daniel Jc KronauerJacobus J Boomsma
Jun 19, 2007·Trends in Ecology & Evolution·Benjamin P Oldroyd, Jennifer H Fewell
Mar 27, 2007·Journal of Insect Physiology·Songkun SuJürgen Tautz
Dec 3, 2014·Molecular Ecology Resources·Kang HuangBaoguo Li
Jan 13, 2006·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·Michael A D Goodisman, Daniel A Hahn
May 25, 2005·Molecular Ecology·Amanda Bretman, Tom Tregenza
Mar 14, 2007·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·Daniel J C KronauerJacobus J Boomsma
Jun 15, 2007·Molecular Ecology·K KellnerP D'Ettorre
Dec 6, 2014·Ecology and Evolution·Marlene StürupJacobus J Boomsma
Jan 31, 2018·Journal of Evolutionary Biology·I A ButlerD J C Kronauer
Apr 8, 2006·Molecular Ecology·Daniel J C KronauerJacobus J Boomsma
Apr 20, 2021·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences·Benjamin P Oldroyd, Boris Yagound
May 5, 2021·Communications Biology·Mathilde VidalJürgen Heinze

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