scholarly journals Reproductive inhibition among nestmate queens in the invasive Argentine ant

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sílvia Abril ◽  
Crisanto Gómez
Keyword(s):  
Social Insects ◽  
Cuticular Hydrocarbon ◽  
Argentine Ant ◽  
Chemical Interactions ◽  
Queen Number ◽  
Queen Pheromones ◽  
Social Species ◽  
Reproductive Inhibition ◽  
Insect Societies ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractIn social species, the presence of several reproductive individuals can generate conflict. In social insects, as queen number increases, individual oviposition rate may decrease because of direct and indirect behavioural and/or chemical interactions. Understanding the factors that mediate differences in queen fecundity should provide insight into the regulation and maintenance of highly polygynous insect societies, such as those of the invasive Argentine ant (Linepithema humile). In this study, we investigated (1) whether differences in the oviposition rates of Argentine ant queens exposed to polygynous conditions could result from interactions among them; (2) whether such differences in fecundity stemmed from differences in worker attention; and (3) whether polygynous conditions affected the cuticular hydrocarbon profiles of queens (CHCs). We found that differences in queen fecundity and CHC profiles observed under polygynous conditions disappeared when queens were exposed to monogynous conditions, suggesting some form of reproductive inhibition may exist when queens cohabit. These differences did not seem to arise from variation in worker attention because more fecund queens were not more attractive to workers. Levels of some CHCs were higher in more fecund queens. These CHCs are associated with greater queen productivity and survival. Our findings indicate that such compounds could be multifunctional queen pheromones.

scholarly journals Specialized odorant receptors in social insects that detect cuticular hydrocarbon cues and candidate pheromones

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory M. Pask ◽  
Jesse D. Slone ◽  
Jocelyn G. Millar ◽  
Prithwiraj Das ◽  
Jardel A. Moreira ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Insects ◽  
Cuticular Hydrocarbon ◽  
Odorant Receptors

scholarly journals Climate-mediated cooperation promotes niche expansion in burying beetles

eLife ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Syuan-Jyun Sun ◽  
Dustin R Rubenstein ◽  
Bo-Fei Chen ◽  
Shih-Fan Chan ◽  
Jian-Nan Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Small Groups ◽  
Social Insects ◽  
Breeding Success ◽  
Cooperative Groups ◽  
Burying Beetles ◽  
Ecological Consequences ◽  
Social Species ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Large Groups

The ability to form cooperative societies may explain why humans and social insects have come to dominate the earth. Here we examine the ecological consequences of cooperation by quantifying the fitness of cooperative (large groups) and non-cooperative (small groups) phenotypes in burying beetles (Nicrophorus nepalensis) along an elevational and temperature gradient. We experimentally created large and small groups along the gradient and manipulated interspecific competition with flies by heating carcasses. We show that cooperative groups performed as thermal generalists with similarly high breeding success at all temperatures and elevations, whereas non-cooperative groups performed as thermal specialists with higher breeding success only at intermediate temperatures and elevations. Studying the ecological consequences of cooperation may not only help us to understand why so many species of social insects have conquered the earth, but also to determine how climate change will affect the success of these and other social species, including our own.

scholarly journals Queen number influences the timing of the sexual production in colonies of Cardiocondyla ants

2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
pp. 670-673 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masaki Suefuji ◽  
Sylvia Cremer ◽  
Jan Oettler ◽  
Jürgen Heinze
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Social Insects ◽  
Mate Competition ◽  
Queen Number ◽  
Brood Production ◽  
Standard Pattern ◽  
Emergence Pattern ◽  
Local Mate ◽  
Mating Opportunities ◽  
Sexual Production

Wingless males of the ant genus Cardiocondyla engage in fatal fighting for access to female sexual nestmates. Older, heavily sclerotized males are usually capable of eliminating all younger rivals, whose cuticle is still soft. In Cardiocondyla sp. A, this type of local mate competition (LMC) has turned the standard pattern of brood production of social insects upside down, in that mother queens in multi-queen colonies produce extremely long-lived sons very early in the life cycle of the colony. Here, we investigated the emergence pattern of sexuals in two species with LMC, in which males are much less long-lived. Queens of Cardiocondyla obscurior and Cardiocondyla minutior reared their first sons significantly earlier in multi-queen than in single-queen societies. In addition, first female sexuals also emerged earlier in multi-queen colonies, so that early males had mating opportunities. Hence, the timing of sexual production appears to be well predicted by evolutionary theory, in particular by local mate and queen–queen competition.

scholarly journals Monogamy promotes worker sterility in insect societies

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas G. Davies ◽  
Andy Gardner
Keyword(s):  
Population Genetics ◽  
Social Insects ◽  
Inclusive Fitness ◽  
Stable States ◽  
Inclusive Fitness Theory ◽  
Insect Societies ◽  
Extended Analysis ◽  
Key Driver ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Worker Sterility

AbstractInclusive-fitness theory highlights monogamy as a key driver of altruistic sib-rearing. Accordingly, monogamy should promote the evolution of worker sterility in social insects when sterile workers make for better helpers. However, a recent population-genetics analysis (Olejarzet al.2015) found no clear effect of monogamy on worker sterility. Here, we revisit this analysis. First, we relax genetic assumptions, considering not only alleles of extreme effect—encoding either no sterility or complete sterility—but also alleles with intermediate worker-sterility effects. Second, we broaden the stability analysis—which focused on the invasibility of populations where either all workers are fully-sterile or all workers are fully-reproductive—to identify where intermediate pure or mixed evolutionarily-stable states may occur. Finally, we consider additional, demographically-explicit ecological scenarios relevant to worker non-reproduction. This extended analysis demonstrates that an exact population-genetics approach strongly supports the prediction of inclusive-fitness theory that monogamy promotes sib-directed altruism in social insects.

scholarly journals Honeybees possess a structurally diverse and functionally redundant set of queen pheromones

2019 ◽  
Vol 286 (1905) ◽  
pp. 20190517 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah A. Princen ◽  
Ricardo Caliari Oliveira ◽  
Ulrich R. Ernst ◽  
Jocelyn G. Millar ◽  
Jelle S. van Zweden ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Ovary Development ◽  
Mandibular Glands ◽  
Queen Mandibular Pheromone ◽  
Queen Pheromones ◽  
Honeybee Queen ◽  
Queen Signal ◽  
Insect Societies ◽  
Reproductive Division Of Labour ◽  
Reproductive Division

Queen pheromones, which signal the presence of a fertile queen and induce workers to remain sterile, play a key role in regulating reproductive division of labour in insect societies. In the honeybee, volatiles produced by the queen's mandibular glands have been argued to act as the primary sterility-inducing pheromones. This contrasts with evidence from other groups of social insects, where specific queen-characteristic hydrocarbons present on the cuticle act as conserved queen signals. This led us to hypothesize that honeybee queens might also employ cuticular pheromones to stop workers from reproducing. Here, we support this hypothesis with the results of bioassays with synthetic blends of queen-characteristic alkenes, esters and carboxylic acids. We show that all these compound classes suppress worker ovary development, and that one of the blends of esters that we used was as effective as the queen mandibular pheromone (QMP) mix. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the two main QMP compounds 9-ODA and 9-HDA tested individually were as effective as the blend of all four major QMP compounds, suggesting considerable signal redundancy. Possible adaptive reasons for the observed complexity of the honeybee queen signal mix are discussed.

Epilogue

1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Bonabeau ◽  
Marco Dorigo ◽  
Guy Theraulaz
Keyword(s):  
Neural Networks ◽  
Inverse Problem ◽  
Cost Function ◽  
Decentralized Control ◽  
Social Insects ◽  
Intelligent Systems ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
Design Of Algorithms ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Insight Into

After seven chapters of swarm-based approaches, where do we stand? First of all, it is clear that social insects and, more generally, natural systems, can bring much insight into the design of algorithms and artificial problem-solving systems. In particular, artificial swarm-intelligent systems are expected to exhibit the features that may have made social insects so successful in the biosphere: flexibility, robustness, decentralized control, and self-organization. The examples that have been described throughout this book provide illustrations of these features, either explicitly or implicitly. The swarm-based approach, therefore, looks promising, in face of a world that continually becomes more complex, dynamic, and overloaded with information than ever. There remain some issues, however, as to the application of swarm intelligence to solving problems. . . . 1. First, it would be very useful to define methodologies to “program” a swarm or multiagent system so that it performs a given task. There is a similarity here with the problem of training neural networks [167]: how can one tune interaction weights so that the network performs a given task, such as classification, recognition, etc. The fact that (potentially mobile) agents in a swarm can take actions asynchronously and at any spatial location generally makes the problem extremely hard. In order to solve this “inverse” problem and find the appropriate individual algorithm that generates the desired collective pattern, one can either systematically explore the behaviors of billions of different swarms, or search this huge space of possible swarms with some kind of cost function, assuming a reasonable continuity of the mapping from individual algorithms to collective productions. This latter solution can be based, for example, on artificial evolutionary techniques such as genetic algorithms [152, 171] if individual behavior is adequately coded and if a cost function can be defined. 2. Second, and perhaps even more fundamental than the issue of programming the system, is that of defining it: How complex should individual agents be? Should they be all identical? Should they have the ability to learn? Should they be able to make logical inferences? Should they be purely reactive? How local should their knowledge of the environment be?

scholarly journals Functional Heterogeneity in Superorganisms: Emerging Trends and Concepts

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas A O’Shea-Wheller ◽  
Edmund R Hunt ◽  
Takao Sasaki
Keyword(s):  
Social Insects ◽  
Functional Role ◽  
Swarm Robotics ◽  
Model Systems ◽  
Self Organization ◽  
Biological Knowledge ◽  
Functional Heterogeneity ◽  
Emerging Trends ◽  
Multicellular Organisms ◽  
Insight Into

Abstract Social insects are biological benchmarks of self-organization and decentralized control. Their integrated yet accessible nature makes them ideal models for the investigation of complex social network interactions, and the mechanisms that shape emergent group capabilities. Increasingly, interindividual heterogeneity, and the functional role that it may play, is seen as an important facet of colonies’ social architecture. Insect superorganisms present powerful model systems for the elucidation of conserved trends in biology, through the strong and consistent analogies that they display with multicellular organisms. As such, research relating to the benefits and constraints of heterogeneity in behavior, morphology, phenotypic plasticity, and colony genotype provides insight into the underpinnings of emergent collective phenomena, with rich potential for future exploration. Here, we review recent advances and trends in the understanding of functional heterogeneity within social insects. We highlight the scope for fundamental advances in biological knowledge, and the opportunity for emerging concepts to be verified and expanded upon, with the aid of bioinspired engineering in swarm robotics, and computational task allocation.

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