Influence of larvae and workers on egg production of queens of the pharaoh's ant,Monomorium pharaonis (L.)

Børgesen, L. W.; Jensen, P. V.

doi:10.1007/bf01245702

Cited by 25 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…The difference in number of oocytes within each group confirms a previously observed physiological effect of the large larvae by Børgesen and Jensen (1995) (Fig. 4).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

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Nutritional function of replete workers in the pharaoh's ant, Monomorium pharaonis (L.)

Børgesen¹

2000

Insectes soc.

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Queens of the pharaoh's ant Monomorium pharaonis (L.), like several other ant species, feed on larval secretions as their main nourishment and their fecundity is positively correlated with the number of large larvae present in the nest. The surplus of secretions produced by larvae is stored in a temporary caste of replete workers, which comprises young workers who remain in the nest and store liquid nourishment. Repletes are characterised by a conspicuously large gaster, caused by large amounts of liquid food stored in the crop, from which it may be regurgitated and distributed among colony members. In this study, repletes of pharaoh's ants were demonstrated to be functioning as buffers, smoothing fluctuations in availability of high quality food to the reproductive queens when larvae are scarce or missing, thus temporarily keeping up the egg production of queens.In undisturbed two-queen colonies with 20 large worker larvae and 30 workers (15 young and 15 old workers), approximately 10 repletes developed (one replete per two larvae). Development of older workers into repletes, when some or all repletes had been removed from the colonies, demonstrated that their temporal polyethism exhibits great plasticity in this trait.This study confirmed that, in pharaoh's ants, the regulation of fecundity depends not only on the food flow to the queen from larvae or from repletes but also on an unknown larval stimulus.The term crop repletes is suggested for replete workers which use their crop to store nourishment, as opposed to fatbody repletes, which store nourishment in their fat body.The presence of brood tending crop repletes in nests in several European ant species of Leptothorax, Myrmica, and Lasius, show that repletism is a common trait in ants, and that it may play an important role in regulation of nutrition in ant colonies, as demonstrated in Monomorium pharaonis.

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“…The difference in number of oocytes within each group confirms a previously observed physiological effect of the large larvae by Børgesen and Jensen (1995) (Fig. 4).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

“…Børgesen and Jensen (1995) found, however, that the effect of larvae on fecundity of queens is around 4.6 eggs per larva per day. When larvae were absent, the number of repletes helped the queen sustain egg laying but not as effectively as larvae.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nutritional function of replete workers in the pharaoh's ant, Monomorium pharaonis (L.)

Børgesen¹

2000

Insectes soc.

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“…On the other hand, other researchers have shown that only the number of late stage larvae is responsible for queen fertility in e.g. Monomorium pharaonis and Solenopsis invicta (Tschinkel, 1988;Børgesen & Jensen, 1995;Cassill & Vinson, 2007). This suggests that different mechanisms may operate in different ant species.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 76%

Pupae Transplantation to Boost Early Colony Growth in the Weaver Ant Oecophylla longinoda Latreille (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Ouagoussounon¹,

Sinzogan²,

Offenberg³

et al. 2013

Sociobiology

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Oecophylla ants are currently used for biological control in fruit plantations in Australia, Asia and Africa and for protein production in Asia. To further improve the technology and implement it on a large scale, effective and fast production of live colonies is desirable. Early colony development may be artificially boosted via the use of multiple queens (pleometrosis) and/or by adoption of foreign pupae in developing colonies. In the present experiments, we tested if multiple queens and transplantation of pupae could boost growth in young Oecophylla longinoda colonies. Colonies with two queens artificially placed in the same nest, all perished due to queen fighting, suggesting that pleometrosis is not used by O. longinoda in Benin. In contrast, pupae transplantation resulted in highly increased growth rates, as pupae were readily adopted by the queens and showed high survival rates (mean = 92%). Within the 50-day experiment the total number of individuals in colonies with 50 and 100 pupae transplanted, increased with 169 and 387 %, respectively, compared to colonies receiving no pupae. This increase was both due to the individuals added in the form of pupae but also due to an increased per capita brood production by the resident queen, triggered by the adopted pupae. Thus pupae transplantation may be used to shorten the time it takes to produce weaver ant colonies in ant nurseries, and may in this way facilitate the implementation of weaver ant biocontrol in West Africa.

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“…This suggests that the presence of later stage brood may stimulate queen fecundity. The presence of late stage larvae has been shown to trigger queen fecundity in S. invicta and Monomorium pharaonis (Tschinkel, 1988;Børgesen and Jensen, 1995;Cassill and Vinson, 2007), whereas the presence of cocoons was able to trigger fecundity in Camponotus spp. (Gibson and Scott, 1990).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Development rate and brood production in haplo- and pleometrotic colonies of Oecophylla smaragdina

2012

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Pleometrosis (colony founding by multiple queens) may improve life history characteristics that are important for early colony survival. When queens unite their initial brood, the number of workers present when incipient colonies open may be higher than for single queen colonies. Further, the time until the first worker emerges may shorten. For territorial species and species that rob brood from neighbouring colonies, a faster production of more workers may improve the chance of surviving intraspecific competition. In this study, the time from the nuptial flight to the emergence of the first worker in incipient Oecophylla smaragdina Fabr. colonies founded by 1-5 queens was compared and the production of brood during the first 68 days after the nuptial flight was assessed. Compared to haplometrotic colonies, pleometrotic colonies produced 3.2 times more workers, their first worker emerged on average 4.3 days (8%) earlier and the queen's per capita egg production almost doubled. Further, colony production was positively, correlated with the number of founding queens and time to worker emergence was negatively correlated. These results indicate that pleometrotic O. smaragdina colo-nies are competitively superior to haplometrotic colonies as they produce more workers faster and shorten the claustral phase, leading to increased queen fecundity.

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Influence of larvae and workers on egg production of queens of the pharaoh's ant,Monomorium pharaonis (L.)

Cited by 25 publications

References 22 publications

Nutritional function of replete workers in the pharaoh's ant, Monomorium pharaonis (L.)

Nutritional function of replete workers in the pharaoh's ant, Monomorium pharaonis (L.)

Pupae Transplantation to Boost Early Colony Growth in the Weaver Ant Oecophylla longinoda Latreille (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Development rate and brood production in haplo- and pleometrotic colonies of Oecophylla smaragdina

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