scholarly journals Socio-reproductive Conflicts and the Father’s Curse Dilemma

2018 ◽  
Vol 192 (2) ◽  
pp. 250-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikael Mokkonen ◽  
Esa Koskela ◽  
Tanya Procyshyn ◽  
Bernard Crespi
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Conflicts

scholarly journals Reproductive conflicts in social animals: who has power?

2003 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 277-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madeleine Beekman ◽  
Jan Komdeur ◽  
Francis L.W. Ratnieks
Keyword(s):  
Social Animals ◽  
Reproductive Conflicts

scholarly journals Direct assessment of queen quality and lack of worker suppression in a paper wasp

2005 ◽  
Vol 272 (1570) ◽  
pp. 1339-1344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jürgen Liebig ◽  
Thibaud Monnin ◽  
Stefano Turillazzi
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Output ◽  
Ovarian Development ◽  
Inclusive Fitness ◽  
Reproductive Activity ◽  
Egg Laying ◽  
Paper Wasp ◽  
Polistes Dominulus ◽  
Queen Policing ◽  
Reproductive Conflicts ◽  
Animal Societies

Assessing a conspecific's potential is often crucial to increase one's fitness, e.g. in female choice, contests with rivals or reproductive conflicts in animal societies. In the latter, helpers benefit from accurately assessing the fertility of the breeder as an indication of inclusive fitness. There is evidence that this can be achieved using chemical correlates of reproductive activity. Here, we show that queen quality can be assessed by directly monitoring her reproductive output. In the paper wasp Polistes dominulus , we mimicked a decrease in queen fertility by regularly removing brood. This triggered ovarian development and egg-laying by many workers, which strongly suggests that brood abundance is a reliable cue of queen quality. Brood abundance can be monitored when workers perform regular brood care in small size societies where each brood element is kept in a separate cell. Our results also show that although the queen was not manipulated, and thus remained healthy and fully fertile, she did not control worker egg-laying. Nevertheless, when workers laid eggs, the queen secured a near reproductive monopoly by selectively destroying these eggs, a mechanism known as ‘queen policing’. By contrast, workers destroyed comparatively few queen-laid eggs, but did destroy each other's eggs.

scholarly journals The value of oviposition timing, queen presence and kinship in a social insect

2013 ◽  
Vol 280 (1766) ◽  
pp. 20131231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martina Ozan ◽  
Heikki Helanterä ◽  
Liselotte Sundström
Keyword(s):  
Social Insect ◽  
Breeding Phenology ◽  
Reproductive Competition ◽  
Formica Fusca ◽  
Indirect Fitness ◽  
Fitness Benefits ◽  
Reproductive Conflicts

Reproductive cooperation confers benefits, but simultaneously creates conflicts among cooperators. Queens in multi-queen colonies of ants share a nest and its resources, but reproductive competition among queens often results in unequal reproduction. Two mutually non-exclusive factors may produce such inequality in reproduction: worker intervention or queen traits. Workers may intervene by favouring some queens over others, owing to either kinship or queen signals. Queens may differ in their intrinsic fecundity at the onset of oviposition or in their timing of the onset of oviposition, leading to their unequal representation in the brood. Here, we test the role of queen kin value (relatedness) to workers, timing of the onset of oviposition and signals of presence by queens in determining the maternity of offspring. We show that queens of the ant Formica fusca gained a significantly higher proportion of sexuals in the brood when ovipositing early, and that the presence of a caged queen resulted in a significant increase in both her share of sexual brood and her overall reproductive share. Moreover, the lower the kin value of the queen, the more the workers invested in their own reproduction by producing males. Our results show that both kinship and breeding phenology influence the outcome of reproductive conflicts, and the balance of direct and indirect fitness benefits in the multi-queen colonies of F. fusca .

scholarly journals Crystalline deposits reveal caste identity of late embryos and larvae of the ant Cardiocondyla obscurior

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobias Wallner ◽  
Eva Schultner ◽  
Jan Oettler
Keyword(s):  
Social Insects ◽  
Developmental Plasticity ◽  
Social Evolution ◽  
Reproductive Organs ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Crystalline Deposits ◽  
Reproductive Conflicts

Social insects are interesting models for the study of anticipatory developmental plasticity because of the striking differentiation into reproductive queens and functionally sterile workers. A few ant genera, including Cardiocondyla, represent the pinnacle of social evolution in the Hymenoptera, where workers have completely lost their reproductive organs, minimizing reproductive conflicts between queens and workers. Here we show that late embryos and larvae of queens of the ant C. obscurior can be identified by the appearance of urate deposits around the forming ovaries. The discovery of caste-specific urate patterns in C. obscurior and three additional Cardiocondyla species will facilitate future studies of developmental plasticity in ants.

Reproductive conflicts and mutilation in queenless Diacamma ants

2006 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
pp. 305-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastien Baratte ◽  
Matthew Cobb ◽  
Christian Peeters
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Conflicts

scholarly journals REPRODUCTIVE CONFLICTS AFFECT LABOR AND IMMUNE DEFENSE IN THE QUEENLESS ANT DIACAMMA SP. “NILGIRI”

Evolution ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aurélie Bocher ◽  
Claudie Doums ◽  
Laurence Millot ◽  
Claire Tirard
Keyword(s):  
Immune Defense ◽  
Reproductive Conflicts ◽  
Queenless Ant
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