Wingless and dwarf workers underlie the ecological success of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
Wingless and dwarf workers underlie the ecological success of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
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发表时间：
2016
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通讯作者：
Christian P Eeters;TO FuminoriI
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作者：
Christian P Eeters;TO FuminoriI
蚁群的组织方式与黄蜂和蜜蜂类似：生殖利他主义、年龄多民族主义和复杂的交流。然而，蚂蚁的种类更多，总生物量更高，它们的生活方式和饮食也更加多样化。因此，除了社会性以外的因素也必须参与这种进化多样化。我们认为，飞行能力的丧失使得工蚁和蚁后的体型发生了广泛的变化。无翼助手彻底改变了殖民地经济，因为它们的制造成本较低。不会飞也消除了矮工蚁（头宽1毫米或更小）进化的限制；这些存在于 229 / 286 个被检查的蚂蚁属中，但不存在于社会黄蜂和蜜蜂中。小型化涉及组织和器官的简化（复眼、刺器、卵巢、外骨骼），而矮人工人的人均成本更便宜。对106个属的卵巢数量进行比较，发现矮工蚁的卵巢减少，6个属的Ponerinae和8个属的Myrmicinae的卵巢完全消失。体型影响营养生态，同时也影响群体有限能量预算的“包装”模式，如果适应性允许，群体规模会增加。矮工蚁与大蚁后一起促成了幽闭独立群体基础的进化，该群体在三个大亚科（长头蚁亚科、蚁亚科和蚁亚科）中占主导地位。无翅使得工蚁和蚁后之间的成本存在差异，同时也带来了新颖的活动安排和防御适应。高度二态性的蚁后和工蚁促进了嵌合表型（士兵和工蚁）的进化，这增加了群体的复杂性（M OLET & al. 2012 The American Naturalist 180: 328-341）。我们推测，廉价的工人导致人们从肉食性饮食转向蜜露等碳水化合物。黄蜂和工蜂——就像蚂蚁一样不育——需要飞行，这限制了与蜂王的广泛分歧，从而阻止了更大的群体。助蚁没有翅膀，最大限度地发挥了两种形态等级的好处。
Ant colonies are organized similarly to those of wasps and bees: reproductive altruism, age polyethism, and complex communication. Yet ants exhibit more species, much higher total biomass, and their lifestyles and diet are more diverse. Hence, factors additional to sociality must be involved in this evolutionary diversification. We argue that loss of flight permitted extensive changes in body size of ant workers and queens. Wingless helpers revolutionized colonial economy because they are cheaper to manufacture. Flightlessness also removed constraints on the evolution of dwarf workers (head width 1 mm or less); these exist in 229 / 286 ant genera examined but not in social wasps and bees. Miniaturisation involves simplification of tissues and organs (compound eyes, sting apparatus, ovaries, exoskeleton), and dwarf workers are cheaper per capita. Comparison of ovariole numbers in 106 genera indicates reduction of ovaries in dwarf workers, and complete loss in six genera of Ponerinae and eight genera of Myrmicinae. Body size influences trophic ecology, but also the pattern in which a colony's finite energy budget is "packaged", allowing increases in colony size if adaptive. Dwarf workers together with big queens enabled the evolution of claustral independent colony foundation that is predominant in three large subfamilies (Dolichoderinae, Formicinae and Myrmicinae). Winglessness allows this divergence of costs between workers and queens, but also novel activity schedules and adaptations for defence. Highly dimorphic queens and workers promoted the evolution of mosaic phenotypes (soldiers and ergatoid queens), which added to colonial complexity (M OLET & al. 2012 The American Naturalist 180: 328-341). We speculate that cheaper workers caused a shift away from a carnivorous diet to carbohydrates such as honeydew. Wasp and bee workers – infertile just as in ants – need to fly and this constrained extensive divergence from queens, which prevented bigger colonies. The winglessness of ant helpers maximized the benefits of having two morphological castes.