Egg-Laying "Intermorphs" in the Ant Crematogaster smithi neither Affect Sexual Production nor Male Parentage.

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Title
Egg-Laying "Intermorphs" in the Ant Crematogaster smithi neither Affect Sexual Production nor Male Parentage.
Journal
PLoS One
Author(s)
Oettler J., Dijkstra M.B., Heinze J.
ISSN
1932-6203 (Electronic)
ISSN-L
1932-6203
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2013
Volume
8
Number
10
Pages
e75278
Language
english
Abstract
We study male parentage and between-colony variation in sex allocation and sexual production in the desert ant Crematogaster smithi, which usually has only one singly-mated queen per nest. Colonies of this species are known to temporarily store nutrients in the large fat body of intermorphs, a specialized female caste intermediate in morphology between queens and workers. Intermorphs repackage at least part of this fat into consumable but viable male-destined eggs. If these eggs sometimes develop instead of being eaten, intermorphs will be reproductive competitors of the queen but-due to relatedness asymmetries-allies of their sister worker. Using genetic markers we found a considerable proportion of non-queen sons in some, but not all, colonies. Even though intermorphs produce ∼1.7× more eggs than workers, their share in the parentage of adult males is estimated to be negligible due to their small number compared to workers. Furthermore, neither colony-level sex allocation nor overall sexual production was correlated with intermorph occurrence or number. We conclude that intermorph-laid eggs typically do not survive and that the storage of nutrients and their redistribution as eggs by intermorphs is effectively altruistic.
Pubmed
Web of science
Open Access
Yes
Create date
14/11/2013 9:46
Last modification date
20/08/2019 14:51
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