TY - JOUR
T1 - Mating frequency, colony size, polyethism and sex ratio in fungus-growing ants (Attini)
AU - Murakami, T.
AU - Higashi, Seigo
AU - Windsor, Donald
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements We wish to express our sincere thanks to Ted Schultz and Ulrich Mueller, The National Museum of Natural History Smithsonian Institution, and the University of Texas, for their useful suggestions on fieldwork in Barro Colorado Island and Gamboa; to Kazuki Tsuji, Toyama University, for his helpful advice and comments on the munuscript; to Michihiro Yoshida, Shuichi Abe, Yasuyuki Ishibashi, Junko Nagata, and Atsushi Fujiwara, Hokkaido University, for their fruitful suggestions and comments on the DNA analysis. We thank the Instituto Nacional de Recursos Naturales Renovables (INRENARE) for permission to collect ants in Panama. This study was supported in part by Japanese Ministry of Education, Science, Sport, and Culture Grants (no. 07640829 and 08406011) and Research Fellowships of the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science for Young Scientists to M.T. This study complies with the current laws of Japan and Panama.
PY - 2000
Y1 - 2000
N2 - The mating frequency of queens was estimated for eight attine ant species, Myrmicocrypta ednaella, Apterostigma mayri, Cyphomyrmex costatus, C. rimosus (four lower attines), Trachymyrmex isthmicus, Sericomyrmex amabalis, Acromyrmex octospinosus and Atta colombica (four higher attines), and correlated to colony size, worker polyethism, and sex ratio. Mating frequency was calculated from within-colony relatedness estimated by CAP-PCR DNA fingerprinting. Most queens of lower attines and T. isthmicus mated with only one male, while those of the three higher attines mated with multiple males. Mating frequency was positively correlated with colony size. Polyethism among workers was dependent on worker age in lower attines but on body size in higher attines, suggesting some correlation between mating frequency (i.e., within-colony gene diversity) and caste complexity. The sex ratio was biased toward females in species where the mating frequency equaled one, but toward males in species where the mating frequency was greater than two. Changing in nest site from ground surface to deep underground may have facilitated the evolution of large colony size in Attini, and this may have resulted in the evolution of polyandry (a queen mates with multiple males). With the evolution of polyandry in higher attines, Atta and Acromyrmex in particular have generated high genetic diversity within their colonies and complex social structures.
AB - The mating frequency of queens was estimated for eight attine ant species, Myrmicocrypta ednaella, Apterostigma mayri, Cyphomyrmex costatus, C. rimosus (four lower attines), Trachymyrmex isthmicus, Sericomyrmex amabalis, Acromyrmex octospinosus and Atta colombica (four higher attines), and correlated to colony size, worker polyethism, and sex ratio. Mating frequency was calculated from within-colony relatedness estimated by CAP-PCR DNA fingerprinting. Most queens of lower attines and T. isthmicus mated with only one male, while those of the three higher attines mated with multiple males. Mating frequency was positively correlated with colony size. Polyethism among workers was dependent on worker age in lower attines but on body size in higher attines, suggesting some correlation between mating frequency (i.e., within-colony gene diversity) and caste complexity. The sex ratio was biased toward females in species where the mating frequency equaled one, but toward males in species where the mating frequency was greater than two. Changing in nest site from ground surface to deep underground may have facilitated the evolution of large colony size in Attini, and this may have resulted in the evolution of polyandry (a queen mates with multiple males). With the evolution of polyandry in higher attines, Atta and Acromyrmex in particular have generated high genetic diversity within their colonies and complex social structures.
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U2 - 10.1007/s002650000243
DO - 10.1007/s002650000243
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0033824679
VL - 48
SP - 276
EP - 284
JO - Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology
JF - Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology
SN - 0340-5443
IS - 4
ER -