Chronobiology Laboratory, Evolutionary and Organismal Biology Unit, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, P.O. Box 6436, Jakkur, Bangalore 560 064, Karnataka, India.
J Insect Physiol. 2012 Jan;58(1):75-82. doi: 10.1016/j.jinsphys.2011.09.017. Epub 2011 Oct 14.
A virgin ant queen has only one opportunity in her lifetime to realize her reproductive fitness when she leaves her nest for a mating flight. After successful mating she sheds her wings, excavates a nest and starts laying eggs to initiate her own colony. Here we report the results of our study on two related species of Camponotus ants - day active Camponotus paria and night active Camponotus compressus - aimed at investigating (i) if there exist inter-species differences in the activity and phototactic behaviors of males and queens, (ii) whether these behaviors in the queen change after mating, and (iii) whether the activity rhythm of queens changes with age. We find that while activity profiles differ between C. paria and C. compressus virgin males and queens, such differences in queens disappear after mating. Once mated, the activity rhythm of queens shows little change with age; the rhythm in virgin queens, on the other hand, changes considerably. As virgins, C. paria queens are positively phototactic, while C. compressus queens are negatively phototactic. After mating, C. paria queens become less phototactic, particularly during the subjective night, while C. compressus queens remain negatively phototactic. These results indicate that there are considerable differences in the activity and phototactic behaviors of virgin queens of the two related species of Camponotus ants. Most of these differences disappear after mating, which suggests that these behaviors may have evolved primarily for the proper execution of pre-mating events.
一只处女蚁后一生中只有一次机会，在她离开巢穴进行交配飞行时，实现她的生殖适应性。交配成功后，她会脱落翅膀，挖掘巢穴并开始产卵，从而启动自己的蚁群。在这里，我们报告了对两种相关的 Camponotus 蚂蚁——日间活动的 Camponotus paria 和夜间活动的 Camponotus compressus——的研究结果，旨在调查：（i）雄蚁和蚁后之间是否存在种间差异在行为和趋光行为方面，（ii）交配后蚁后是否会改变这些行为，以及（iii）蚁后是否会随着年龄的增长而改变活动节律。我们发现，虽然 C. paria 和 C. compressus 处女雄蚁和蚁后的活动模式存在差异，但交配后的蚁后这些差异消失了。一旦交配，蚁后的活动节律随着年龄的增长变化很小；另一方面，处女蚁后的活动节律变化相当大。作为处女蚁，C. paria 蚁后是正趋光的，而 C. compressus 蚁后是负趋光的。交配后，C. paria 蚁后变得不那么趋光，尤其是在主观夜间，而 C. compressus 蚁后仍然是负趋光的。这些结果表明，两种相关的 Camponotus 蚂蚁的处女蚁后在行为和趋光行为方面存在很大差异。这些差异中的大部分在交配后消失，这表明这些行为可能主要是为了执行交配前的事件而进化的。
