Egg production and caste allocation in the clonally reproductive ant Vollenhovia emeryi

Clonal reproduction and genetic caste differences in a queen-polymorphic ant, Vollenhovia emeryi.

Most social Hymenoptera are characterized by simple haploid sex determination and environment-based caste differentiation. This appears to be strikingly different in the queen-polymorphic ant Vollenhovia emeryi. Almost all long- and short-winged queens from a population in Central Japan were homozygous at three microsatellite loci, whereas workers were mostly heterozygous, suggesting either a c...

Clonal reproduction by males of the ant Vollenhovia emeryi (Wheeler)

In colonies of the queen-polymorphic ant Vollenhovia emeryi, some colonies produce only long-winged (L) queens, while others produce only short-winged (S) queens. At four nuclear microsatellite loci, males in the S colony had alleles that were different from those of their queen. This suggests that the nuclear genome of males is not inherited from their colony queen, as has also been described ...

Role of resource availability on sex, caste and reproductive allocation ratios in the Argentine ant Linepithema humile

Ant species identity mediates reproductive traits and allocation in an ant-garden bromeliad.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Determining the sources of variation in floral morphology is crucial to understanding the mechanisms underlying Angiosperm evolution. The selection of floral and reproductive traits is influenced by the plant's abiotic environment, florivores and pollinators. However, evidence that variations in floral traits result from mutualistic interactions with insects other than polli...

Caste and Task Allocation in Ants

Group living is a widely adopted strategy by many organisms and given the advantages offered by a social lifestyle, such as increased protection from predators or increased ability for resource exploitation, a wide variety of animals have adopted a social lifestyle. Arguably none have done this more successfully than the social insects. Indeed their efficient division of labour is often cited a...