Elisabeth Brunner and Jürgen Heinze. Biologie I, University of Regensburg, Universitätsstraße 31, Regensburg, 93040, Germany
Poster abstract / IUSSI Washington´06
Hierarchy maintenance in the ant Temnothorax unifasciatus
Elisabeth Brunner, Jürgen Heinze
LS Biologie I, Universität Regensburg, Universitätsstraße 31, D-93040 Regensburg
In societies of eusocial insects reproductive conflict exists among workers over the production of males. Conflicts are often solved through dominance interactions leading to a near linear hierarchy in which hierarchy rank is correlated with reproductive activity. In most ant species, workers refrain from reproducing in the presence of the queen, but compete over egg laying rights when their colony is orphaned.
In the monogynous and monandrous ant Temnothorax unifasciatus egg laying by workers can be induced by splitting the colony in queenless and queenright fragments. Workers in the queenless part immediately engage in dominance interactions and high ranking workers start to lay eggs. When colonies are reunited, high ranking workers from the queenless part are predominantly attacked by workers, which become dominant themselves when the queen is separated again from the whole colony. Attacks consist of violent antennation bouts as in dominance interactions in the queenless part. This suggests that hidden dominance hierarchies exist even in the presence of the queen and that workers form a hierarchy of “hopeful reproductives.” This hierarchy becomes only visible when colonies are orphaned and aggressiveness among workers increases. As reproductive opportunities in the presence of the queen are rare, overt dominance interactions may be too costly for workers.
In this study we investigate whether indeed hierarchies exist already in the presence of the queen.
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