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Heinze, Jürgen ; Schrempf, Alexandra

Terminal Investment: Individual Reproduction of Ant Queens Increases with Age

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

Veröffentlichungsdatum dieses Volltextes: 12 Apr 2012 11:08
Artikel
DOI zum Zitieren dieses Dokuments: 10.5283/epub.23788


Zusammenfassung

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

DokumentenartArtikel
Titel eines Journals oder einer ZeitschriftPLoS One
Verlag:PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE
Ort der Veröffentlichung:SAN FRANCISCO
Seitenbereich:e35201
Datum11 April 2012
InstitutionenBiologie und Vorklinische Medizin > Institut für Zoologie > Zoologie/Evolutionsbiologie (Prof. Dr. Jürgen Heinze)
Identifikationsnummer
WertTyp
10.1371/journal.pone.0035201DOI
Stichwörter / KeywordsSEX-RATIO; EVOLUTIONARY-THEORIES; LIFE-SPAN; FECUNDITY; SENESCENCE; LONGEVITY; DROSOPHILA; SURVIVAL; EGGS;
Dewey-Dezimal-Klassifikation500 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik > 590 Tiere (Zoologie)
StatusVeröffentlicht
BegutachtetJa, diese Version wurde begutachtet
An der Universität Regensburg entstandenJa
URN der UB Regensburgurn:nbn:de:bvb:355-epub-237884
Dokumenten-ID23788

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