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Heinze, Jürgen ; Schrempf, Alexandra

Terminal Investment: Individual Reproduction of Ant Queens Increases with Age

Article

Heinze, Jürgen and Schrempf, Alexandra (2012) Terminal Investment: Individual Reproduction of Ant Queens Increases with Age. PLoS One, e35201.

DOI to cite this document: 10.5283/epub.23788


Abstract

The pattern of age-specific fecundity is a key component of the life history of organisms and shapes their ecology and evolution. In numerous animals, including humans, reproductive performance decreases with age. Here, we demonstrate that some social insect queens exhibit the opposite pattern. Egg laying rates of Cardiocondyla obscurior ant queens increased with age until death, even when the ...

The pattern of age-specific fecundity is a key component of the life history of organisms and shapes their ecology and evolution. In numerous animals, including humans, reproductive performance decreases with age. Here, we demonstrate that some social insect queens exhibit the opposite pattern. Egg laying rates of Cardiocondyla obscurior ant queens increased with age until death, even when the number of workers caring for them was kept constant. Cardiocondyla, and probably also other ants, therefore resemble the few select organisms with similar age-specific reproductive investment, such as corals, sturgeons, or box turtles (e.g., [1]), but they differ in being more short-lived and lacking individual, though not social, indeterminate growth. Furthermore, in contrast to most other organisms, in which average life span declines with increasing reproductive effort, queens with high egg laying rates survived as long as less fecund queens.



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Details

Item typeArticle
Journal or Publication TitlePLoS One
PublisherPUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE
Open Access TypeGold (with APC)
Place of PublicationSAN FRANCISCO
Page Rangee35201
Date11 April 2012
Date of publication12 Apr 2012 11:08
InstitutionsBiology, Preclinical Medicine > Institut für Zoologie > Zoologie/Evolutionsbiologie (Prof. Dr. Jürgen Heinze)
Identification Number
ValueType
10.1371/journal.pone.0035201DOI
KeywordsSEX-RATIO; EVOLUTIONARY-THEORIES; LIFE-SPAN; FECUNDITY; SENESCENCE; LONGEVITY; DROSOPHILA; SURVIVAL; EGGS;
Dewey Decimal Classification500 Science > 590 Zoological sciences
StatusPublished
RefereedYes, this version has been refereed
Created at the University of RegensburgYes
URN of the UB Regensburgurn:nbn:de:bvb:355-epub-237884
Item ID23788

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