Abstract
Abstract Highly organized and ecologically successful societies have evolved convergently in both termites and ants. These societies are characterized by large numbers of individuals and a great complexity with respect to social polymorphism, constructions, communications, foraging behaviour, etc. Perhaps the most important feature of these societies, from an evolutionary viewpoint, is the reproductive division of labour. In many ant and termite colonies, the egg-laying function is restricted to one or a few reproductive female(s), the queen(s). Polygyny, i.e. the coexistence of several functional queens in a colony, has considerable effects on intra-nest relatedness. Moreover, it generates conflicts of interests among these queens, in addition to possible conflicts between queens and non-reproductive individuals (workers, soldiers). Polygynous colonies are therefore of high interest for testing predictions derived from kin-selection theory.
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