Laboratoire d'Ethologie et de Psychophysiologie, Faculté des Sciences, Parc de Grandmont 37200 Tours, France.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1985 Dec;82(24):8545-7. doi: 10.1073/pnas.82.24.8545.
In most circumstances, social insects recognize their nestmates. They can discriminate against alien adults and also against alien larvae. Results presented here indicate that the mechanism of colony-brood recognition is acquired in large part during larval life and persists through the metamorphosis into the adult stage. During the first days after emergence of the adult, a weaker form of learning can also occur. These phenomena are discussed in relation to kinship theory. It appears that kin recognition is determined not so much by genetic relatedness as by spatial proximity of the individuals during the early stages of life.
在大多数情况下,群居昆虫能够识别自己的同巢伙伴。它们可以区分外来的成虫和幼虫。本文的研究结果表明,蚁群-幼体识别机制在很大程度上是在幼虫期获得的,并在变态为成虫阶段后得以持续。在成虫出现后的最初几天,也可能发生较弱形式的学习。本文将讨论这些现象与亲缘关系理论的关系。似乎亲缘识别与其说是由遗传关系决定的,不如说是由个体在生命早期的空间接近度决定的。