Gordon Deborah M, Wagner Diane
Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-5020, USA, , , , , , US.
Oecologia. 1997 Feb;109(4):556-560. doi: 10.1007/s004420050116.
When neighbors compete for resources, the characteristics of a neighborhood may affect fitness. We examined the relationship between reproductive success and the density and size/age characteristics of neighbors in a population of the seed-eating ant, Pogonomyrmex barbatus, in which the ages of all colonies were known. Reproductive success was estimated by trapping and counting the number of alate, reproductive ants emerging from the nest for the annual mating flight. Alate production was negatively related to neighborhood density. Decreased production of alates by more crowded colonies may be due to competition for food with surrounding colonies. Neighbor size/age was unrelated to alate production. If alate production is correlated with lifetime reproductive success, these results suggest that selection favors colonies that monopolize more space, whatever the size of neighboring colonies.
当邻居们争夺资源时，邻里环境的特征可能会影响适合度。我们研究了在已知所有蚁群年龄的食种子蚂蚁——红收获蚁（Pogonomyrmex barbatus）种群中，繁殖成功率与邻居密度以及大小/年龄特征之间的关系。通过诱捕并统计每年婚飞时从巢穴中飞出的有翅繁殖蚁的数量来估算繁殖成功率。有翅蚁的产生与邻里密度呈负相关。更拥挤的蚁群有翅蚁产量下降可能是由于与周围蚁群争夺食物所致。邻居的大小/年龄与有翅蚁产量无关。如果有翅蚁产量与终生繁殖成功率相关，那么这些结果表明，选择有利于独占更多空间的蚁群，无论相邻蚁群的大小如何。
