Sex allocation in the ant Camponotus (Colobopsis) nipponicus (Wheeler): II. The effect of resource availability on sex-ratio variability

作者：Hasegawa E^*

来源：Insectes Sociaux, 2013, 60(3): 329-335.

DOI：10.1007/s00040-013-0297-3

• Ants
• Sex ratio
• Resource availability
• Hymenoptera

Sex-ratio studies have played a prominent role in tests of kin selection theory in the eusocial Hymenoptera. The winner in sex-ratio conflict between queens and workers must control the ratio through proximate mechanisms. To determine how a colony adjusts its sex ratio, the mechanism of sex-ratio determination was analyzed in the field in colonies of the ant Camponotus (Colobopsis) nipponicus. A path model including five colony characteristics showed that the resource availability of the colony (quantified as the amount of stored fat in the bodies of the workers) has a large positive effect on the proportion of new queens in the female larvae, but has little effect on male production. The results indicated that a colony adjusts the sex ratio by altering the proportion of new queens obtained from a diploid brood in response to resource availability rather than by eliminating male larvae.

• 出版日期2013-8