Mating strategies of queens in Lasius niger ants—is environment type important?

Corley, Margaret; Fjerdingstad, Else J.

doi:10.1007/s00265-010-1089-7

Cited by 17 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 52 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…However, a few population comparisons of polyandry in social insects exist. Studies on African A. mellifera subspecies (El-Niweiri and Moritz, 2011; Franck et al, 2000) and the ant Lasius niger (Corley and Fjerdingstad, 2011) agree with our conclusion that population differentiation is important, in contrast to a study of the wasp Vespula germanica (Goodisman et al, 2002). Our study thus provides important support for the theoretical prediction that queen mating behavior in social insects depends on the local environment (Rueppell et al, 2008).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Geographic variation in polyandry of the Eastern Honey Bee, Apis cerana, in Thailand

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The repeated evolution of extreme polyandry in advanced social insects is exceptional and its explanation has attracted significant attention. However, most reported estimates of the number of matings are derived from limited sampling. Temporal and geographic variation in mating behavior of social insects has not been sufficiently studied. Worker offspring of 18 Eastern Honey Bee (Apis cerana Fabr.) queens from three populations across Thailand were genotyped at five microsatellite markers to test for population differences of mating behavior across three different ecosystems. The number of matings decreased from a northern, more seasonal environment to a southern tropical population and was lowest in a tropical island population. Our study confirms earlier findings that social insect mating behavior shows biogeographic variation and highlights that data from several populations are needed for reliable species-specific estimates of the number of matings. Detailed studies of populations that show significant differentiation in the number of matings may be able to discriminate effectively among the different hypotheses that have been proposed to explain the evolution of polyandry in honey bees and other advanced social insects.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

“…These species-specific estimates often derive from limited sampling of one population. However, most of the few existing comparative studies (Corley and Fjerdingstad, 2011; El-Niweiri and Moritz, 2011; Franck et al, 2000) report significant variation of social insect mating behavior (but see Rattanawannee et al, 2012). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geographic variation in polyandry of the Eastern Honey Bee, Apis cerana, in Thailand

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Further research is still needed to investigate other physiological or behavioural traits (e.g. colony size, Kaspari & Vargo, 1995;Purcell, 2011) or mating strategy (Corley & Fjerdingstad, 2011). Moreover, it would be useful to look more in depth at intra-specific variation in traits such as queen number and the production of cocoons.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional diversity decreases with temperature in high elevation ant fauna

Reymond

Purcell

Cherix

et al. 2013

Ecological Entomology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

1. Severe environmental conditions filter community species compositions, forming clines of functional diversity along environmental gradients. Here, the changes in functional diversity in ant assemblages with severe environmental conditions in the Swiss Alps were investigated.2. Eight sites were sampled along an elevation gradient (1800-2550 m). The variation in functional diversity was analysed along an elevation gradient considering four traits: social structure (monogynous vs. polygynous), worker size, pupal development, and nest structure.3. Ant species richness and functional diversity decreased with decreasing temperature. Species found in colder habitats tended to live in subterranean nests rather than in mounds and exhibit a polymorphism in queen number, either within or across populations. The phylogenetic diversity did not decrease at colder temperature: Formicinae and Myrmicinae occupied the full range of elevations investigated.4. An insulation experiment indicated that mounds are more thermally insulated against the cold compared with soil. The absence of a mound-building ant from high elevations probably results from a reduction in the amount of vegetal materials provided by coniferous trees.5. More severe abiotic conditions at higher elevations act as a filter on ant assemblages, directly through physiological tolerances to the abiotic conditions and indirectly as the vegetation necessary for nest building shifts with elevation.

show abstract

“…Van der Have, Boomsma & Menken ; Boomsma & Van Der Have ; Schlüns et al . ; Corley & Fjerdingstad ; Suni & Eldakar ). In total, we gathered information on sperm traits from a sample of 308 males across 15 species (see Table S1 in Supporting information).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sperm production characteristics vary with level of sperm competition in Cataglyphis desert ants

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

1. Under polyandry, males are selected to produce more competitive ejaculates. Theoretical models have explored how the mechanism of sperm competition drives males to partition investment within an ejaculate between sperm quantity and quality. The raffle-based competition model predicts that increased level of sperm competition selects for larger numbers of sperm in ejaculates. Sperm competition is also thought to promote the evolution of longer sperm, because longer sperm could be faster. 2. In eusocial Hymenoptera, the mating system imposes unique selective pressures on male ejaculates. Males are short lived; they reach adulthood with a finite amount of spermatozoa, and they mate typically with a single or a few females and die. The actual number of spermatozoa stored in their accessory testes at emergence is thus a reliable measure of total investment into sperm production. In a comparative study of 15 species of Cataglyphis desert ants, we used phylogenetically controlled analyses to investigate relationships between levels of sperm competition, sperm production and sperm length. We measured sperm production by quantifying the number of spermatozoa present in testes, instead of using a proxy measure such as size of testes. Multiple queen mating is the ancestral state in the genus but reduction in mating frequency evolved secondarily and independently in some clades, providing a unique opportunity to examine how reduction from multiple to single mating influences sperm traits. 3. Our results provide phylogenetically robust evidence that species experiencing greater levels of sperm competition produce more sperm. After controlling for male size, investment in sperm production decreases significantly according to the sequence obligatory multiple queen mating > multiple-single queen mating > single-double queen mating. Furthermore, the number of spermatozoa produced per male decreases significantly with reduction in paternity frequency for each species. In contrast, neither sperm length nor male size was significantly associated with the mating system classes or the number of patrilines. 4. Our measures of sperm number provide the first direct evidence that sperm production covaries with the level of sperm competition in a eusocial insect. Given the reversal from multiple to single mating in Cataglyphis, our comparative analysis also shows convincingly that reduction in sperm competition influences sperm traits.

show abstract

Mating strategies of queens in Lasius niger ants—is environment type important?

Cited by 17 publications

References 52 publications

Geographic variation in polyandry of the Eastern Honey Bee, Apis cerana, in Thailand

Geographic variation in polyandry of the Eastern Honey Bee, Apis cerana, in Thailand

Functional diversity decreases with temperature in high elevation ant fauna

Sperm production characteristics vary with level of sperm competition in Cataglyphis desert ants

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About