Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
2419009 Animal Behaviour 2007 7 Pages PDF
Abstract

We investigated the influence of caste on nestmate discrimination in the ponerine ant Pachycondyla luteipes, where workers lack functional ovaries and are totally sterile. Both a mark-and-recapture field experiment and an introduction experiment in the laboratory revealed intermixing of both nestmate and non-nestmate workers between nests. In the laboratory experiment, conspecific workers, both nestmate and non-nestmates, were almost always accepted. Workers' internest hostility was weak and did not correlate with the distance between nests over the geographical scale studied (<130 m). However, workers responded differentially to nestmate and non-nestmate workers, grooming non-nestmates more frequently than nestmates. In contrast, non-nestmate queens were usually violently attacked by resident workers, and as a result only 30% were accepted. Nestmate queens were always accepted with no aggression. Our results indicate that P. luteipes workers have the ability to recognize nestmates but are not aggressive when the non-nestmates are sterile workers. Such caste-biased acceptance has been predicted by kin selection in relation to the avoidance of intraspecific social parasitism and regulation of queen numbers.

Related Topics
Life Sciences Agricultural and Biological Sciences Animal Science and Zoology
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