Breeding system, colony and population structure in the weaver antOecophylla smaragdina

Abstract

Weaver ants (Oecophylla smaragdina) are dominant ants in open forests from India, Australia, China and Southeast Asia, whose leaf nests are held together with larval silk. The species, together with its sole congener O. longinoda, has been important in research on biological control, communication, territoriality and colony integration. Over most of the range, only one queen has been found per colony, but the occurrence of several queens per nest has been reported for the Australian Northern Territory. The number of males mating with each queen is little known. Here we report on the colony structure of O. smaragdina using published and new microsatellite markers. Worker genotype arrays reflect the occurrence of habitual polygyny (more than one queen per colony) in 18 colonies from Darwin, Northern Australia, with up to five queens inferred per colony. Monogyny (one queen per colony) with occasional polygyny was inferred for 14 colonies from Queensland, Australia, and 20 colonies from Java, Indonesia. Direct genotyping of the sperm carried by 77 Queensland queens and worker genotypic arrays of established colonies yielded similar results, indicating that less than half of the queens mate only once and some mate up to five times. Worker genotype arrays indicated that queens from Java and the Northern Territory also often mate with more than one male, but less often than those from Queensland. A strong isolation-by-distance effect was found for Queensland samples. The variation uncovered means that O. smaragdina is a more versatile study system than previously supposed.

Offspring genetic structure reveals mating and nest infestation behaviour of an invasive parasitic fly (Philornis downsi) of Galápagos birds

“…In the future, genotyping of sperm stored in the spermathecae of females may allow a more accurate measure of the number of mates per female (e.g. Fernandez-Escudero et al 2002;Schlüns et al 2008).…”

The Host Genera of Ant-Parasitic Lycaenidae Butterflies: A Review

“…It is presently impossible to rigorously test these two hypotheses, since data on the colony structure and population demography of many tropical and subtropical ants that are parasitized by lycaenids are too scant. Polygyny seems to be common among ants that serve as hosts [64], but in at least one instance (Camponotus japonicus, the host ant of Niphanda fusca) monogyny and claustral colony foundation have been confirmed [65].…”

Nest and colony-specific spectra in the weaver ant Oecophylla smaragdina

“…Colonies are polydomous and can be very large, spanning several trees and with reportedly up to 500,000 workers (Hölldobler and Wilson, 1983). In far northern Queensland, the majority of colonies have only one queen (monogyny), while the queen may have mated with from one (monandry) to five (polyandry) males (Schlüns et al, 2008).…”