Polyandry and allele frequency differences between the sexes in the ant Formica aquilonia

Abstract

Genetic mother-offspring analyses based on six enzyme gene loci show that about 60 per cent of the females of the mound-building red wood ant Formica aquilonia mate with several males. The number of matings inferred from the offspring genotypes range from one to six, the arithmetic mean being 1.94. The mates do not contribute equally in the inseminations; in the case of two matings, one male is estimated to inseminate on average 77 per cent of the offspring. The average related-ness among the offspring of a single female is 0.6, corresponding to the effective number of matings of 1.43. Three of the six loci show remarkable allele frequency differences between the sexes. At each of these loci the males virtually lack the alleles present in females with frequencies 0.18 at Me, 0.25 at Pgk and 0.27 at Gpi. Segregation analyses indicate normal Mendelian inheritance at these loci and the difference between the sexes seem likely to result from selection.