Populationsbiologie zweier gefährdeter sozialparasitischer Ameisenarten

两种濒危社会寄生蚁的种群生物学

• 批准号: 71165326
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Jürgen Heinze
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Arbeitsgruppe Evolution, Verhalten und Genetik
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2007-12-31 至 2010-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/71165326?language=en
• 关键词: Populationsbiologie; zweier; gef; hrdeter; sozialparasitischer

Socially parasitic ants exploit the workforce of societies of other ant species to rear their own offspring. The fascinating behavior during the usurpation of host societies, the elimination of the host queen, the replenishment of host workers during slave raids, and the coevolution between social parasites and their hosts has attracted researchers ever since Darwin. Because of the destructive effect on their hosts, most social parasites are extremely rare, and almost all are listed as threatened by IUCN and national red lists. Nevertheless, comparatively little effort has been made to determine the actual conservation status of these interesting, rare ants. We intend to investigate the population and colony structure of two closely related taxa with notably different life histories, the active slave-maker Myrmoxenus ravouxi and the degenerate slave-maker M. kraussei. Myrmoxenus ravouxi is one of the few slave-making ants found in Germany. It has been reported from a few scattered, dense populations of Temnothorax ants in several xerothermic areas in Germany (Seifert 1995, 2007) and is considered to be endangered or even close to extinction everywhere in Central Europe. Queens found new colonies after dispersing and mating during a nuptial flight and workers pillage pupae from neighboring host nests to increase the number of host workers in their colonies. M. kraussei is a similarly rare, degenerate slave-maker from Northern Italy and Southern France, i.e., its queens focus on the production of sexuals and produce too few workers for active slave-raiding. Female sexuals mate with their brothers in the maternal nest. From their different life histories we expect the two social parasites to have different population structures, different extinction risks, and different impact on the respective host populations. We therefore intend to analyze the genetic structure of several of the presently known populations of both species and their Temnothorax hosts by microsatellite genotyping and sequencing of mitochondria I and nuclear genes to obtain information on colony structure and population dynamics (local genetic variability, gene flow between populations, the extent and effect of inbreeding, and the pattern of host utilization). The data shall help to clarify whether populations of Myrmoxenus and other slave-making ants with similar life history are indeed highly threatened by extinction or more robust than previously thought.

社会寄生蚂蚁利用其他蚂蚁物种社会的劳动力来抚养自己的后代。自达尔文以来，宿主社会的篡夺、宿主女王的消灭、奴隶袭击期间宿主工人的补充以及社会寄生虫与其宿主之间的共同进化等令人着迷的行为一直吸引着研究人员。由于对宿主的破坏性影响，大多数社会寄生虫都极其罕见，几乎所有寄生虫都被世界自然保护联盟和国家红色名录列为受威胁物种。然而，为确定这些有趣的稀有蚂蚁的实际保护状况所做的努力相对较少。我们打算研究两个密切相关、生活史明显不同的类群的种群和群体结构，即活跃的奴隶制造者 Myrmoxenus ravouxi 和退化的奴隶制造者 M. kraussei。 Myrmoxenus ravouxi 是德国发现的为数不多的制造奴隶的蚂蚁之一。据报道，德国几个干热地区的一些分散而密集的Temnothorax蚂蚁种群（Seifert 1995，2007）被认为在中欧各地都处于濒危状态，甚至接近灭绝。蚁后在婚飞期间分散和交配后发现了新的蚁群，工蚁从邻近的寄主巢穴中掠夺蛹，以增加蚁群中寄主工蚁的数量。 M. kraussei 是来自意大利北部和法国南部的一种同样罕见的、堕落的奴隶制造者，也就是说，它的女王专注于性的生产，而产生的用于积极掠夺奴隶的工人太少。雌性与它们的兄弟在母巢中交配。根据它们不同的生活史，我们预计这两种社会寄生虫具有不同的种群结构、不同的灭绝风险以及对各自宿主种群的不同影响。因此，我们打算通过微卫星基因分型以及线粒体I和核基因的测序来分析这两个物种及其Temnothorax宿主的几个目前已知种群的遗传结构，以获得有关群体结构和群体动态的信息（局部遗传变异性、群体之间的基因流、近交的程度和影响以及宿主利用模式）。这些数据将有助于澄清Myrmoxenus和其他具有相似生活史的奴隶蚂蚁种群是否确实受到灭绝的高度威胁，或者是否比之前认为的更加强大。