Seed and fruit selection by harvester ants, Messor barbarus, in Mediterranean grassland and scrubland
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چکیده
منابع مشابه
Influence of seed size and seed nature on recruitment in the polymorphic harvester ant Messor barbarus.
In the polymorphic harvester ant Messor barbarus, the colony modulates response during foraging according to seed characteristics. The easiness of picking up small seeds (oat fragments or canary seeds) shortens the time lapse between food discovery and the return of scouts to the nest, favouring the onset of recruitment and higher mobilisation rates than bigger seeds (whole oat). However, size ...
متن کاملConvergent evolution of social hybridogenesis in Messor harvester ants.
Sexual reproduction generally requires no more than two partners. Here, we show convergent evolution of social hybridogenesis, a reproductive system requiring three reproductive partners in harvester ants. In this unorthodox reproductive system, two distinct genetic lineages live in sympatry and queens have to mate with males of their own lineage to produce queens along with males of the altern...
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■ Abstract Seed-harvester ants are a dominant and conspicuous insect group throughout arid portions of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, and they include ∼75 species. Intense study in the late 1970s and early 1980s led to the paradigm that interspecific competition for limited seed resources is the primary factor that structures seed-harvester ant communities. This review atte...
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The reproductive division of labour between queen and worker castes in social insects is a defining characteristic of eusociality and a classic example of phenotypic plasticity. Whether social insect larvae develop into queens or workers has long been thought to be determined by environmental cues, i.e. larvae are developmentally totipotent. Contrary to this paradigm, several recent studies hav...
متن کاملEvaluation of Spent Engine Oil and other Natural Materials on the Emergence of Harvester Ants (Messor galla Forel)
Harvester ants (Messor galla Forel) defied various control strategies. Two field experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of Spent Engine-Oil and other nature-based materials on their emergence in Maiduguri, Borno State of Nigeria. The treatments evaluated are spot application of spent engine-oil and some natural materials in experiment 1 and individual and equal mixture of Pure Neem ...
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ژورنال
عنوان ژورنال: Functional Ecology
سال: 2005
ISSN: 0269-8463,1365-2435
DOI: 10.1111/j.0269-8463.2005.00956.x