Abstract

Obligately monogynous and facultatively polygynous forms ofCamponotus nawai Ito was compared. The seasonal changes of colony composition were similar in the two forms except for the season in which alates were found in nests. Collection data suggested that new colonies are founded only by single foundresses in the monogynous form, but mainly by colony budding in the polygynous form. All or most queens in polygynous nests were fertile, thus polygyny is functional. The body size and ovarian volume of queens were larger in the monogynous forms. Queens of the polygynous form showed bimodal size distribution, though smaller queens were less frequent. In the polygynous form, the number of queens was positively correlated with the number of immatures, but negatively correlated with the number of immatures per queen. It seems that the polygynous form occupies more northern regions than the monogynous one and their ranges contact parapatrically. The monogynous and polygynous forms ofC. nawai may be different species because of the differing mating seasons.

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