Giehr Julia, Heinze Jürgen
Zoology/Evolutionary Biology University of Regensburg Regensburg Germany.
Ecol Evol. 2021 Jan 20;11(4):1843-1849. doi: 10.1002/ece3.7173. eCollection 2021 Feb.
Workers in many species of social insects are capable of laying unfertilized eggs, which can develop into haploid males. This causes a conflict about male parentage between queens and workers. In a few species, this may result in matricide, that is, workers kill the colony's queen. Queen killing has so far been observed mainly in multi-queen colonies or in annual species, when the queen's fecundity declines at the end of the reproductive period. Here, we report queen expulsion and matricide in a monogynous, monandrous ant with perennial societies. Workers were seen to aggressively expel both related and unrelated queens from their nest shortly after the end of hibernation. Queen expulsion and matricide led to a significant decrease in the number of workers and brood, but eventually increased the direct fitness of workers through significant male production. Long-term observations revealed a short lifespan of queens, while workers in orphaned colonies survived and produced male offspring over several years.
许多社会性昆虫种类的工蚁能够产下未受精的卵，这些卵可以发育成单倍体雄蚁。这就导致了蚁后和工蚁在雄蚁父权问题上的冲突。在少数物种中，这可能会导致弑母行为，即工蚁杀死蚁群中的蚁后。到目前为止，弑母行为主要在多蚁后群体或一年生物种中被观察到，此时蚁后的繁殖力在繁殖期结束时会下降。在此，我们报告了在一个具有多年生群体的单蚁后、单雄蚁的蚂蚁物种中出现的蚁后驱逐和弑母现象。在冬眠结束后不久，工蚁就会积极地将有亲缘关系和无亲缘关系的蚁后从它们的巢穴中驱逐出去。蚁后驱逐和弑母行为导致工蚁和幼虫数量显著减少，但最终通过大量产生雄蚁提高了工蚁的直接适合度。长期观察显示蚁后的寿命较短，而无蚁后的群体中的工蚁存活了下来，并在几年内产下了雄蚁后代。
