PMID: 11607589Nov 21, 1995Paper

Reproductive cooperation between queens and their mated workers: the complex life history of an ant with a valuable nest

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Christian Peeters, B Hölldobler

Abstract

The life history of Harpegnathos saltator is exceptional among ants because both queens and workers reproduce sexually. Recently mated queens start new colonies alone, but later some of the offspring workers also become inseminated and take over the egg-laying role. This alternation seems associated with the existence of very complex underground nests, which are designed to survive floods. Longevity of ponerine queens is low (a consequence of limited caste dimorphism in this "primitive" subfamily), and upon the death of an H. saltator foundress, the nest represents a substantial investment. The queen's progeny should thus be strongly selected to retain the valuable nests. Unlike the flying queens, the workers copulate with males from their own colonies, and, thus, their offspring are expected to be highly related to the foundress. Colony fission appears not to occur because a daughter fragment would lack an adequate nest for protection. Thus, the annual production of queens in colonies with reproductive workers remains essential for the establishment of new colonies. This contrasts with various other ponerine species in which the queens no longer exist.

Citations

Aug 28, 2007·Die Naturwissenschaften·Thibaud Monnin, Christian Peeters
Aug 16, 2008·Die Naturwissenschaften·Bruno GobinChristian Peeters
Jan 22, 2011·Die Naturwissenschaften·Adrian A SmithJürgen Liebig
Jan 20, 2010·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences·Abderrahman Khila, Ehab Abouheif
Dec 9, 2000·Annual Review of Entomology·C Peeters, F Ito
Sep 20, 2007·Annual Review of Entomology·Yves Le Conte, Abraham Hefetz
Apr 13, 2000·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·J LiebigB Hölldobler
Mar 1, 2005·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Theodore A EvansMichael Lenz
Nov 9, 2006·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·Kevin N Laland, Kim Sterelny
Mar 29, 2007·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Jelle S van ZwedenPatrizia D'Ettorre
May 11, 2016·Scientific Reports·Sebastian A SchneiderThomas Roeder
Jul 12, 2017·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Jesse D SloneLaurence J Zwiebel

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