Advantages of biparental care in the wood-dwelling termite, Zootermopsis nevadensis
Advantages of biparental care in the wood-dwelling termite,
Zootermopsis nevadensis
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双亲饲养对木栖白蚁（Zootermopsis nevadensis）的优势
作者：
J. Shellman
对49个年轻的白蚁菌落进行的实地实验支持的假设，成功的后代生产的生态限制有利于双亲照顾。在六个月的实验中，由双亲照料的蚁群存活的可能性是单亲蚁群的两倍。在幸存的殖民地，后代数量的百分比变化没有显着差异的殖民地为首的两个父母与单亲。工人（三龄青少年和老年人），但不是非工人（第一和第二龄青少年），被发现在所有幸存的殖民地，表明后代生存，而不是新的后代生产，占成功的双亲和单亲的差异。在实验期结束时，四个幸存的单亲殖民地中有三个变成了双亲殖民地：在两个殖民地中，后代成为替代生殖动物;在第三个殖民地中，一个成年雄性与一个筑巢的雌性重新配对。同种压力，从新的巢成立的成年人，飞到日志包含实验殖民地可能占所有殖民地类型的高死亡率。新的筑巢对定居在实验殖民地附近。每个实验殖民地面积的新的筑巢对的平均数显着正相关的单亲殖民地失败的比例在该地区。
A field experiment conducted on 49 young termite colonies lends support to the hypothesis that ecological constraints on successful offspring production favour two-parent care. Colonies cared for by two parents were twice as likely to survive the six-month experiment as were colonies headed by single parents. Among surviving colonies, the percentage change in the number of offspring did not differ between colonies headed by two parents versus single parents. Workers (third instar juveniles and older), but not non-workers (first and second instar juveniles), were found in all surviving colonies, indicating that offspring survivorship, not new offspring production, accounts for difference in success of two parents and single parents. Three of the four surviving single-parent colonies became two-parent colonies by the end of the experimental period: in two colonies, offspring became replacement reproductives; in the third colony, an adult male re-paired with a nest-founding female. Conspecific pressures from new nest-founding adults that flew onto logs containing the experimental colonies may account for high mortality in all colony types. New nest-founding pairs settled near experimental colonies. The mean numbers of new nest-founding pairs per experimental-colony area were significantly positively correlated with the proportion of single-parent colony failures in that area.