Body size and sperm quality in queen- And worker-produced ant males.

Abstract

Workers of many species of social Hymenoptera have functional ovaries and are capable of laying haploid, unfertilized eggs, at least in the absence of a queen. Except for honeybees, it remains largely unknown whether worker-produced males have the same quality as queen-produced males and whether workers benefit in direct fitness by producing their sons. Previous studies in the monogynous ant Temnothorax crassispinus revealed that a high proportion of males in natural and laboratory colonies are worker offspring. Here, we compare longevity, body size, sperm length and sperm viability between queen- and worker-produced males. We either split queenright colonies into queenright and queenless halves or removed the queen from a fraction of the queenright colonies and then examined the newly produced males. Male quality traits varied considerably among colonies but differed only slightly between queen- and worker-produced males. Worker-produced males outnumbered queen-produced males and also had a longer lifespan, but under certain rearing conditions sperm from queen-produced males had a higher viability.