Abstract
The behavioral traits that shape the structure of animal societies vary considerably among species but appear to be less flexible within species or at least within populations. Populations of the ant Leptothorax acervorum differ in how queens interact with other queens. Nestmate queens from extended, homogeneous habitats tolerate each other and contribute quite equally to the offspring of the colony (polygyny: low reproductive skew). In contrast, nestmate queens from patchy habitats establish social hierarchies by biting and antennal boxing, and eventually only the top-ranking queen of the colony lays eggs (functional monogyny: high reproductive skew). Here we investigate whether queen-queen behavior is fixed within populations or whether aggression and high skew can be elicited by manipulation of socio-environmental factors in colonies from low skew populations. An increase of queen/worker ratio and to a lesser extent food limitation elicited queen-queen antagonism in polygynous colonies from Nürnberger Reichswald similar to that underlying social and reproductive hierarchies in high-skew populations from Spain, Japan, and Alaska. In manipulated colonies, queens differed more in ovarian status than in control colonies. This indicates that queens are in principle capable of adapting the magnitude of reproductive skew to environmental changes in behavioral rather than evolutionary time.
Highlights
The organization of animal societies and the underlying behavioral traits vary considerably among species but appear to be remarkably robust within species or at least within populations (e.g., [1,2,3])
The share of individual group members in the offspring produced by the group (‘‘reproductive skew’’) ranges from equal partitioning among mutually tolerant group members (‘‘low skew’’) to reproduction being the privilege of only one individual, which dominates all other individuals (‘‘high skew’’; [4,5,6])
Reichswald population resulted in queen-queen antagonism similar in quality and quantity to that previously observed in high-skew populations
Summary
The organization of animal societies and the underlying behavioral traits vary considerably among species but appear to be remarkably robust within species or at least within populations (e.g., [1,2,3]). High or even maximal skew has been described only from a small number of species with multi-queen colonies, where only one of several inseminated queens monopolizes reproduction ([12,13,14,15]). This ‘‘functional monogyny’’ [13] results from the formation of social rank orders among potential reproductives through overtly aggressive or ritualized dominance behavior (e.g., [12], [14,15,16,17]). Whether queens are capable of adaptively reacting to changed environmental conditions, as assumed by models of optimal skew [22], has rarely been investigated
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