Queen-queen competition by precocious male production in multiqueen ant colonies
Arriving earlier in the breeding area than his rivals may be beneficial for a male when females mate only once or during a short time span. The timing of a male's entrance is usually determined by the male himself, e.g., through returning early from his winter quarters or through accelerated la...
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| Format: | Article |
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Elsevier
2006
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| _version_ | 1825719518387765248 |
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| author | Yamauchi, Katsusuke Ishida, Yasuko Hashim, Rosli Heinze, Jürgen |
| author_facet | Yamauchi, Katsusuke Ishida, Yasuko Hashim, Rosli Heinze, Jürgen |
| author_sort | Yamauchi, Katsusuke |
| collection | UM |
| description | Arriving earlier in the breeding area than his rivals may be beneficial for a male when females mate only once or during a short time span. The timing of a male's entrance is usually determined by the male himself, e.g., through returning early from his winter quarters or through accelerated larval development [1-3]. Here, we document a surprisingly simple way of "first come, first served" in a species with local mate competition. In multiqueen colonies of a Cardiocondyla ant, mother queens make sure that their own sons are the first to monopolize mating with a large harem of female sexuals by producing extremely long-lived males early in colony life. Whereas queens in newly founded single-queen colonies started to produce male and female sexuals only several weeks after the eclosion of their first worker off spring, queens in multiqueen colonies precociously reared sons long before the first female sexuals and even before the emergence of their first workers. These early males killed all later emerging males in the nest and mated with all female sexuals subsequently produced. Our data document that the patterns of growth and productivity of insect colonies are surprisingly flexible and can be turned upside down under appropriate selection pressures. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T05:20:58Z |
| format | Article |
| id | um.eprints-8300 |
| institution | Universiti Malaya |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-06T05:20:58Z |
| publishDate | 2006 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | um.eprints-83002020-12-17T01:47:18Z http://eprints.um.edu.my/8300/ Queen-queen competition by precocious male production in multiqueen ant colonies Yamauchi, Katsusuke Ishida, Yasuko Hashim, Rosli Heinze, Jürgen QH301 Biology Arriving earlier in the breeding area than his rivals may be beneficial for a male when females mate only once or during a short time span. The timing of a male's entrance is usually determined by the male himself, e.g., through returning early from his winter quarters or through accelerated larval development [1-3]. Here, we document a surprisingly simple way of "first come, first served" in a species with local mate competition. In multiqueen colonies of a Cardiocondyla ant, mother queens make sure that their own sons are the first to monopolize mating with a large harem of female sexuals by producing extremely long-lived males early in colony life. Whereas queens in newly founded single-queen colonies started to produce male and female sexuals only several weeks after the eclosion of their first worker off spring, queens in multiqueen colonies precociously reared sons long before the first female sexuals and even before the emergence of their first workers. These early males killed all later emerging males in the nest and mated with all female sexuals subsequently produced. Our data document that the patterns of growth and productivity of insect colonies are surprisingly flexible and can be turned upside down under appropriate selection pressures. Elsevier 2006 Article PeerReviewed Yamauchi, Katsusuke and Ishida, Yasuko and Hashim, Rosli and Heinze, Jürgen (2006) Queen-queen competition by precocious male production in multiqueen ant colonies. Current Biology, 16 (24). pp. 2424-2427. ISSN 0960-9822, DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2006.10.007 <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2006.10.007>. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982206023074 doi:10.1016/j.cub.2006.10.007 |
| spellingShingle | QH301 Biology Yamauchi, Katsusuke Ishida, Yasuko Hashim, Rosli Heinze, Jürgen Queen-queen competition by precocious male production in multiqueen ant colonies |
| title | Queen-queen competition by precocious male production in multiqueen ant colonies |
| title_full | Queen-queen competition by precocious male production in multiqueen ant colonies |
| title_fullStr | Queen-queen competition by precocious male production in multiqueen ant colonies |
| title_full_unstemmed | Queen-queen competition by precocious male production in multiqueen ant colonies |
| title_short | Queen-queen competition by precocious male production in multiqueen ant colonies |
| title_sort | queen queen competition by precocious male production in multiqueen ant colonies |
| topic | QH301 Biology |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT yamauchikatsusuke queenqueencompetitionbyprecociousmaleproductioninmultiqueenantcolonies AT ishidayasuko queenqueencompetitionbyprecociousmaleproductioninmultiqueenantcolonies AT hashimrosli queenqueencompetitionbyprecociousmaleproductioninmultiqueenantcolonies AT heinzejurgen queenqueencompetitionbyprecociousmaleproductioninmultiqueenantcolonies |