Populationsbiologie zweier gefährdeter sozialparasitischer Ameisenarten

社会寄生蚂蚁利用其他蚂蚁物种社会的劳动力来养育自己的后代。自达尔文以来，寄生虫在侵占宿主社会、消灭宿主女王、补充奴隶掠夺中的宿主工蜂以及社会寄生虫与宿主之间的共同进化过程中的迷人行为一直吸引着研究者。由于对宿主的破坏性影响，大多数社会寄生虫都非常罕见，几乎所有的都被IUCN和国家红色名录列为受威胁。然而，相对较少的努力已经确定这些有趣的，罕见的蚂蚁的实际保护状况。本研究旨在探讨生活史有显著差异的两种密切相关的分类群-主动的奴隶制造者Myrmoxenus ravouxi和退化的奴隶制造者M.克劳塞伊Myrmoxenus ravouxi是在德国发现的少数几种奴隶制造蚂蚁之一。据报道，在德国的几个干热地区，一些分散、密集的Temnothorax蚂蚁种群也出现了这种情况（Seifert 1995，2007），并且被认为在中欧各地都处于濒危甚至接近灭绝的状态。蚁后在婚礼飞行中分散和交配后发现了新的殖民地，而工蜂则从邻近的宿主巢穴中掠夺蛹，以增加殖民地中的宿主工蜂数量。M.克劳塞伊也是一个同样罕见的、堕落的奴隶制造者，来自北方意大利和法国南部，它的女王专注于性生产，生产的工人太少，无法积极掠夺奴隶。雌性有性生殖者在母巢中与它们的兄弟交配。从它们不同的生活史来看，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和线粒体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的种群的遗传结构，以获得关于群体结构和种群动态的信息（局部遗传变异性，种群之间的基因流，近亲繁殖的程度和影响，以及宿主利用的模式）。这些数据将有助于澄清Myrmoxenus和其他具有类似生活史的奴隶制造蚂蚁的种群是否确实受到灭绝的高度威胁，或者比以前认为的更强大。

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.