Experimental manipulation of colony genetic diversity had no effect on short-term task efficiency in the Argentine ant Linepithema humile

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Title
Experimental manipulation of colony genetic diversity had no effect on short-term task efficiency in the Argentine ant Linepithema humile
Journal
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology
Author(s)
Rosset H., Keller L., Chapuisat M.
ISSN
0340-5443
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2005
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
58
Number
1
Pages
87-98
Language
english
Notes
919TL
Abstract
Genetic diversity might increase the performance of social groups by improving task efficiency or disease resistance, but direct experimental tests of these hypotheses are rare. We manipulated the level of genetic diversity in colonies of the Argentine ant Linepithema humile, and then recorded the short-term task efficiency of these experimental colonies. The efficiency of low and high genetic diversity colonies did not differ significantly for any of the following tasks: exploring a new territory, foraging, moving to a new nest site, or removing corpses. The tests were powerful enough to detect large effects, but may have failed to detect small differences. Indeed, observed effect sizes were generally small, except for the time to create a trail during nest emigration. In addition, genetic diversity had no statistically significant impact on the number of workers, males and females produced by the colony, but these tests had low power. Higher genetic diversity also did not result in lower variance in task efficiency and productivity. In contrast to genetic diversity, colony size was positively correlated with the efficiency at performing most tasks and with colony productivity. Altogether, these results suggest that genetic diversity does not strongly improve short-term task efficiency in L. humile, but that worker number is a key factor determining the success of this invasive species.
Keywords
division of labour task efficiency genetic diversity social insects division-of-labor western harvester ant iridomyrmex-humilis social hymenoptera honeybee colonies insect societies apis-mellifera pogonomyrmex-occidentalis mating frequency polyandry
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24/01/2008 18:38
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20/08/2019 14:43
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