A morphological comparison of alates between monogynous and polygynous colonies of Myrmica kotokui in northernmost Japan

Abstract

Social structure and sexual size of two populations of Myrmica kotokui were compared. Most of the colonies were polygynous in one population and monogynous in the other. Mean body size of the queens was larger in the monogynous population than in the polygynous population. Although the polygynous population contained many large queens, their wing length was significantly shorter than that of queens in the monogynous population. Some females in the polygynous population were intermorphic between typical workers and queens, while the females of the monogynous population were clearly divided into worker and queen castes without any intermorphic females. The body size of the males showed a large variation and the mean was not significantly different between the two populations.