Royal presence promotes worker and soldier aggression against non-nestmates in termites
Royal presence promotes worker and soldier aggression against non-nestmates in termites
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DOI：
10.1007/s00040-020-00799-w
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发表时间：
2021-02-09
期刊：
影响因子：
1.3
通讯作者：
Matsuura, K.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Konishi, T.;Matsuura, K.
许多社会性昆虫可以区分巢友和非巢友同种，这确保了利他行为针对近亲。然而，在白蚁中，蚁群对非巢友表现出不同的反应：从杀死到接受其作为蚁群成员。白蚁群落为何以及如何采用封闭社会与开放社会仍然很大程度上未知，但据推测这不仅与遗传因素有关，还与社会环境因素有关。在这里，我们表明，地下白蚁散白蚁（Reticulitermes speratus）中，蚁王和蚁后在维持工蚁和蚁兵对非巢穴入侵者的高攻击性方面发挥着关键作用。与“有王室”的群体相比，“没有王室”的群体对非同种异种的攻击水平明显较低。此外，在没有国王和王后的情况下，工蚁和士兵对非同窝同伴表现出攻击行为的比例有所下降。我们的研究结果表明，包括王室存在在内的社会条件可以影响殖民间的互动，并可以解释为什么之前的白蚁攻击研究报告了相互矛盾的发现。这项研究为真社会性昆虫的巢友识别和群体防御提供了重要的新见解。
Many eusocial insects can distinguish nestmates from non-nestmate conspecifics, which ensures that altruistic behavior is directed toward close relatives. In termites, however, colonies exhibit various responses to non-nestmates: from killing to accepting as a colony member. Why and how termite colonies adopt closed versus open societies remain largely unknown, while it is presumably related to not only genetic but also social-environmental factors. Here, we show that kings and queens play a key role in maintaining high aggression levels of workers and soldiers toward non-nestmate intruders in the subterranean termite Reticulitermes speratus. The level of aggression toward non-nestmate conspecifics was significantly lower in "royal-absent" colonies compared to "royal-present" colonies. In addition, the proportion of workers and soldiers exhibiting aggressive behaviors toward non-nestmates decreased in the absence of kings and queens. Our results demonstrate that social conditions, including royal presence, can influence intercolonial interactions, and may explain why previous studies of termite aggression have reported contradictory findings. This study provides important new insights into nestmate recognition and colony defense in eusocial insects.