Cooperative colony foundation by termite female pairs: altruism for survivorship in incipient colonies
Cooperative colony foundation by termite female pairs: altruism for survivorship in incipient colonies
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DOI：
10.1006/anbe.2002.3062
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发表时间：
2002-08-01
期刊：
影响因子：
2.5
通讯作者：
Nishida, T
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Matsuura, K;Fujimoto, M;Nishida, T
为了确定成本和收益的女王协会在白蚁，我们研究了第一次在殖民地成立的两个未交配的女性之间的相互作用。在散白蚁Speratus，女性未能与男性配对发现殖民地合作与合作伙伴的女性和单性生殖。从第一代工蜂育雏量和体重增长的角度分析了双蜂王群体中蜂王优势度与初始大小排序之间的关系。分配亲子后代的两个女王殖民地，我们使用mtDNA限制性片段长度多态性（RFLP），结果表明，这两个皇后产生的第一个工人育雏同样在整个殖民地的基础。此外，最初较小的女性获得显着更多的重量比最初较大的女性。这可能是由于较大的雌性对较小的雌性的利他行为。一个简单的数学模型，考虑到资源分配和生存，可以解释为什么较大的女性行为利他主义对较小的女性。我们还研究了女性的反应时，两个以上的女性被放置在培养皿中的存在或不存在的男性。如果有一个雄性伴侣在场，殖民地中只有一只雌性存活。在没有雄性伙伴的情况下，两个雌性，但从来没有超过两个，合作建立了一个殖民地。这些结果表明，雌性需要一个伴侣来建立和保留一个群体。(C)2002年，动物行为研究协会。由Elsevier Science Ltd.出版，版权所有。
To determine the costs and benefits of queen association in termites we examined for the first time female-female interactions in colonies founded by two unmated females. In the termite Reticulitermes speratus, females that fail to pair with males found colonies cooperatively with partner females and reproduce by parthenogenesis. We analysed the relationship between queen dominance and initial size ranking in two-queen colonies from the viewpoint of first worker brood production and weight gain. To assign parentage to offspring of two-queen colonies we used mtDNA restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP); the results suggested that the two queens produced first worker brood equally throughout colony foundation. Furthermore, initially smaller females gained significantly more weight than initially larger females. This may have resulted from altruistic behaviour of the larger females towards the smaller ones. A simple mathematical model, which considered resource allocation and survivorship, could explain why the larger females behave altruistically towards the smaller females. We also examined the responses of females when more than two females were placed in a petri dish in the presence or absence of a male. If a partner male was present, only one female survived in the colony. In the absence of a partner male, two females, but never more than two, founded a colony cooperatively. These results show that females need a partner to found, and retain, a colony. (C) 2002 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.