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A test of reproductive skew models in a field population of a multiple-queen ant

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Abstract

Determining the evolutionary basis of variation in reproductive skew (degree of sharing of reproduction among coexisting individuals) is an important task both because skew varies widely across social taxa and because testing models of skew evolution permits tests of kin selection theory. Using parentage analyses based on microsatellite markers, we measured skew among female eggs (n=32.3 eggs per colony, range=20–68) in 17 polygynous colonies from a UK field population of the ant Leptothorax acervorum. We used skew among eggs as our principal measure of skew because of the high degree of queen turnover in the study population. Queens within colonies did not make significantly unequal contributions to queen and worker adult or pupal offspring, indicating that skew among female eggs reflected skew among daughter queens. On average, both skew among female eggs (measured by the B index) and queen–queen relatedness proved to be low (means±SE=0.06±0.02 and 0.28±0.08, respectively). However, contrary to current skew models, there was no significant association of skew with either relatedness or worker number (used as a measure of productivity). In L. acervorum, predictions of the concession model of skew may hold between but not within populations because queens are unable to assess their relatedness to other queens within colonies. Additional phenomena that may help maintain low skew in the study population include indiscriminate infanticide in the form of egg cannibalism and split sex ratios that penalize reproductive monopoly by single queens within polygynous colonies.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Peter Nonacs, Seirian Sumner and an anonymous referee for helpful comments and advice. The Forestry Commission kindly granted permission to collect samples. This work was supported by a grant (GR3/11792) from the UK Natural Environment Research Council to AFGB and MWB. Rob Hammond was supported by Swiss National Science Foundation grants awarded to Laurent Keller while this paper was written. The work in this paper complies with current UK law.

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  1. A. F. G. Bourke

    Present address: School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, Regent’s Park, London, NW1 4RY, UK

    R. L. Hammond & A. F. G. Bourke

  2. School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3TL, UK

    M. W. Bruford

  3. Department of Ecology and Evolution, Biophore, University of Lausanne, CH 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland

    R. L. Hammond

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  1. R. L. Hammond
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Correspondence to R. L. Hammond.

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Communicated by K. Ross

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Hammond, R.L., Bruford, M.W. & Bourke, A.F.G. A test of reproductive skew models in a field population of a multiple-queen ant. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 61, 265–275 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-006-0257-2

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