Nestmate recognition and genetic variability among individuals from nests of the queenless ponerine ant, Streblognathus aethiopicus Smith (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
- Authors: Schluns, E A , Neumann, Peter , Schluns, H , Hepburn, H Randall , Moritz, Robin F A
- Date: 2006
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/452000 , vital:75094 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC32667
- Description: Nestmate recognition in the queenless ponerine ant, Streblognathus aethiopicus, was evaluated with a behavioural bioassay. Ten pairs of nests were randomly chosen from an aggregation of 74 nests. While nestmates never showed aggression towards each other, the behaviour towards non-nestmates was either aggressive or non-aggressive, demonstrating the ability to recognize nestmates. Also, the nests in this aggregation were evenly spaced, further supporting the notion of territoriality in this species. To evaluate the relative importance of environment and genetics on the observed variation in nestmate recognition, we measured the spatial and genetic distances between nests. Workers of 13 nests were genotyped with the AFLP technique. Multiple regression analysis revealed no significant impact of spatial and genetic distance on aggressive behaviour. Thus, further studies are necessary to reveal the actual mechanisms underlying nestmate recognition in this species. Two distinct groups of nests with genetically homogeneous and heterogeneous workers were found, which may indicate gamergate replacement or colony fission.
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- Date Issued: 2006
Social parasitism by honeybee workers (Apis mellifera capensis Escholtz): host finding and resistance of hybrid host colonies
- Authors: Neumann, Peter , Radloff, Sarah E , Moritz, Robin F A , Hepburn, H Randall , Reece, Sacha L
- Date: 2001
- Language: English
- Type: text , Article
- Identifier: vital:6907 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011860
- Description: We studied possible host finding and resistance mechanisms of host colonies in the context of social parasitism by Cape honeybee (Apis mellifera capensis) workers. Workers often join neighboring colonies by drifting, but long-range drifting (dispersal) to colonies far away from the maternal nests also rarely occurs. We tested the impact of queenstate and taxon of mother and host colonies on drifting and dispersing of workers and on the hosting of these workers in A. m. capensis, A. m. scutellata, and their natural hybrids. Workers were paint-marked according to colony and reintroduced into their queenright or queenless mother colonies. After 10 days, 579 out of 12,034 labeled workers were recaptured in foreign colonies. We found that drifting and dispersing represent different behaviors, which were differently affected by taxon and queenstate of both mother and host colonies. Hybrid workers drifted more often than A. m. capensis and A. m. scutellata. However, A. m. capensis workers dispersed more often than A. m. scutellata and the hybrids combined, and A. m. scutellata workers also dispersed more frequently than the hybrids. Dispersers from queenright A. m. capensis colonies were more often found in queenless host colonies and vice versa, indicating active host searching and/or a queenstate-discriminating guarding mechanism. Our data show that A. m. capensis workers disperse significantly more often than other races of A. mellifera, suggesting that dispersing represents a host finding mechanism. The lack of dispersal in hybrids and different hosting mechanisms of foreign workers by hybrid colonies may also be responsible for the stability of the natural hybrid zone between A. m. capensis and A. m. scutellata.
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- Date Issued: 2001