Tergal and Sternal Glands in Male Ants

Hölldobler, Bert; Engel-Siegel, Hiltrude

doi:10.1155/1982/40397

Cited by 16 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Male ants have diverse chemosensory adaptations, even though they often lack metapleural glands (Brown, ; Hölldobler & Engel‐Siegel, ; Yek & Mueller, ), as well as a sting and thus glands associated with the sting apparatus (Hölldobler & Engel‐Siegel, ). For instance, army ant males must enter foreign nests in search of queens, and have highly developed abdominal glands possibly to advertise their quality to queen‐retinue workers (Franks & Hölldobler, ).…”

Section: Linking Male Traits and Mating Syndrome Ecologymentioning

confidence: 99%

The life history continuum hypothesis links traits of male ants with life outside the nest

Shik

Kaspari

2013

Entomologia Exp Applicata

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An ant society, headed by a mated queen, can live for decades. Male ants, in contrast, are generally assumed to be ephemeral sperm delivery vessels programmed to die hours after leaving the nest to mate. However, the events from dispersal to mate location have rarely been studied, and the links between male traits and the ecological demands of diverse mating systems remain poorly understood. Here, we propose that interspecific variation in the length of mating flights has generated a life history continuum for male ants, and that the previously proposed 'male aggregating' and 'female calling' mating syndromes represent the endpoints. We also provide the first evidence for systematic divergence in pre-mating traits between males that attract females to brief nuptial swarms (Male aggregation syndrome) and those that must survive while searching for patchily distributed females that signal with pheromones (Female calling syndrome). Specifically, female-calling males tend to have larger eyes and mandibles, but the length of the basal antennal segment (scape) appears relatively constant across body sizes. After exploring these patterns, we review evidence that key components of fitness like mating frequency vary across a male life history continuum, and then explore links between male traits and a colony's per capita reproductive investment. Systematic variation in preflight provisioning of males relative to mating systems may have important ecological implications, given that ants are dominant consumers on a global scale, and colonies ultimately use large fractions of harvested resources to fuel reproduction. "The body of the male ant is graceful in form, one might say emaciated. Its sense-organs, wings and genitalia are highly developed; its mandibles are… imperfectly developed, and in correlation with the head, are proportionately shorter, smaller and rounder than in females… Yet, the male type may present interesting modifications." Wheeler (1910: 93)

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Section: Linking Male Traits and Mating Syndrome Ecologymentioning

confidence: 99%

The life history continuum hypothesis links traits of male ants with life outside the nest

Shik

Kaspari

2013

Entomologia Exp Applicata

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“…As in most stridulating ants, the stridulatory organ is composed of a file on the fourth abdominal tergite and a scraper on the preceding tergite (Giovannotti 1996, Pavan et al 1997. Abdominal glands in the male are described by Hölldobler and Engel-Siegel (1982).…”

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confidence: 99%

Taxonomic revision of the Pachycondyla apicalis species complex (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Wild

2005

Zootaxa

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The taxonomy of the Neotropical Pachycondyla apicalis species complex is revised. Contrary to the widely-held view that the apicalis complex contains only two species, P. apicalis (Latreille 1802) and P. obscuricornis (Emery 1890), morphological evidence indicates the existence of three broadly sympatric species. Examination of type specimens reveals that the name obscuricornis has been extensively misapplied in the literature, and that the valid name for the widespread species commonly misdiagnosed as P. obscuricornis is P. verenae (Forel 1922). True P. obscuricornis is shown to be an uncommonly collected South American species. The name apicalis is valid as currently employed for that species. A taxonomic key is provided, along with diagnoses, illustrations, and distributional data for all three species.

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“…On the other hand, in winged males of C. wroughtonii and C. emeryi, as in winged males of 25 additional species of nine subfamilies (for a complete list, see ref. 29), spermatogenesis was completed shortly after eclosion, their follicles were collapsed, and all sperm cells were stored in the seminal vesicles.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fighting for a harem of queens: physiology of reproduction in Cardiocondyla male ants.

Heınze¹,

Hölldobler²

1993

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

120

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Several species of the ant genus Cardiocondyla produce dimorphic males, which exhibit sharply different mating strategies. Winged males typically disperse to mate outside the nest, whereas wingless, ergatoid males stay in the nest and aggressively employ their mandibles against competing ergatoid males to monopolize the virgin queens eclosing in the nest. Such aggressive mating strategy would only be adaptive if the males had unlimited sperm supply. Histological studies showed that, contrary to the rule in the Hymenoptera order, the ergatoid Cardiocondyla males are indeed able to produce sperm during their entire adult life. Winged males, on the other hand, have only a limited sperm supply since spermatogenesis ceases in the late pupal stage.

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Tergal and Sternal Glands in Male Ants

Abstract: Introduction:

Cited by 16 publications

References 3 publications

The life history continuum hypothesis links traits of male ants with life outside the nest

The life history continuum hypothesis links traits of male ants with life outside the nest

Taxonomic revision of the Pachycondyla apicalis species complex (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Fighting for a harem of queens: physiology of reproduction in Cardiocondyla male ants.

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