Queen-Worker Conflict and Eusocial Evolution in a Polygynous Ant Species

Sex allocation ratios in the facultatively polygynous ant, Leptothorax acervorum

“…This stands in striking contrast to observations in the Santon population (Chan and Bourke 1994;Chan et al 1999), but matches data from other British populations (Chan et al 1999) and Myrmica tahoensis (Evans 1995). Our data therefore do not support the queen-worker conflict hypothesis (Herbers 1984), which suggests that the queens' power to enforce their favorite sex allocation ratio increases with the number of queens relative to the number of workers. The data also do not support the hypotheses that the value of female sexuals as replacement queens decreases at higher queen numbers (Brown and Keller 2000) or that the queen-worker ratio is kept at an optimal level (O. Rüppell, J. Heinze, B. Hölldobler, unpublished data).…”

Variable sex ratio among colonies of ants

“…Two causal explanations have been proposed. First, Herbers (1984) found that in Leptothorax longispinosus the investment ratio in males declined as the number of workers in the colony increased. She suggested that as worker numbers rise, workers increasingly gain control from the queen(s) over the colony allocation ratio.…”

Population Fluidity in Leptothorax Longispinosus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

“…These (Buschinger 1968(Buschinger , 1974, and L. longispinosus is no exception (Talbot 1957;Headley 1943;Alloway et al 1982). Previous work on the E. N. Huyck Preserve (Albany County, New York) showed the population to be facultatively polygynous: some nests contain no queen, others have one, and still others have multiple queens (Herbers 1984). Moreover, there was a strong winter-summer dichotomy in queen distribution.…”