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van Zweden, Jelle S. ; Fürst, Matthias A. ; Heinze, Jürgen ; D'Ettorre, Patrizia

Specialization in policing behaviour among workers in the ant Pachycondyla inversa

van Zweden, Jelle S., Fürst, Matthias A., Heinze, Jürgen und D'Ettorre, Patrizia (2007) Specialization in policing behaviour among workers in the ant Pachycondyla inversa. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B : Biological Sciences 274 (1616), S. 1421-1428.

Veröffentlichungsdatum dieses Volltextes: 05 Aug 2009 13:50
Artikel
DOI zum Zitieren dieses Dokuments: 10.5283/epub.5625


Zusammenfassung

Most animal societies are non-clonal and thus subject to conflicts. In social insects, conflict over male production can be resolved by worker policing, i.e. eating of worker-laid eggs (WLE) or aggression towards reproductive workers. All workers in a colony have an interest in policing behaviour being expressed, but there can be asymmetries among workers in performing the actual behaviour. Here, ...

Most animal societies are non-clonal and thus subject to conflicts. In social insects, conflict over male production can be resolved by worker policing, i.e. eating of worker-laid eggs (WLE) or aggression towards reproductive workers. All workers in a colony have an interest in policing behaviour being expressed, but there can be asymmetries among workers in performing the actual behaviour. Here, we show that workers of the ant Pachycondyla inversa specialize in policing behaviour. In two types of behavioural assays, workers developed their ovaries and laid eggs. In the first experiment, reproductive workers were introduced into queenright colonies. In the second experiment, WLE were introduced. By observing which individuals policed, we found that aggressive policing was highly skewed among workers that had opportunity to police, and that a similar tendency occurred in egg policing. None of the policing workers had active ovaries, so that policing did not incur a direct selfish benefit to the policer. This suggests that policing is subject to polyethism, just like other tasks in the colony. We discuss several hypotheses on the possible causes of this skew in policing tasks. This is the first non-primate example of specialization in policing tasks without direct selfish interests.



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Details

DokumentenartArtikel
Titel eines Journals oder einer ZeitschriftProceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B : Biological Sciences
Verlag:ROYAL SOC
Ort der Veröffentlichung:LONDON
Band:274
Nummer des Zeitschriftenheftes oder des Kapitels:1616
Seitenbereich:S. 1421-1428
Datum2007
InstitutionenBiologie und Vorklinische Medizin > Institut für Zoologie > Zoologie/Evolutionsbiologie (Prof. Dr. Jürgen Heinze)
Identifikationsnummer
WertTyp
17389223PubMed-ID
10.1098/rspb.2007.0113DOI
Klassifikation
NotationArt
AggressionMESH
AnimalsMESH
Ants/physiologyMESH
Behavior, AnimalMESH
Conflict (Psychology)MESH
FemaleMESH
MaleMESH
Ovary/growth & developmentMESH
OvumMESH
ReproductionMESH
Social BehaviorMESH
Stichwörter / KeywordsPONERINE ANT; EUSOCIAL HYMENOPTERA; PRIMARY POLYGYNY; QUEENLESS ANT; CF. INVERSA; REPRODUCTION; VILLOSA; RELATEDNESS; EVOLUTION; COLONY; division of labour; worker reproduction; worker policing; egg eating; aggression
Dewey-Dezimal-Klassifikation500 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik > 590 Tiere (Zoologie)
500 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik > 590 Tiere (Zoologie)
StatusVeröffentlicht
BegutachtetJa, diese Version wurde begutachtet
An der Universität Regensburg entstandenUnbekannt / Keine Angabe
Dokumenten-ID5625

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