Absence of kin discrimination in a ponerine ant

• Published in: Animal behaviour 2002-08, Vol.64 (2), p.261-268
• Main Authors: Blatrix, Rumsais, Jaisson, Pierre
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal behavior; Animal ethology; Biological and medical sciences; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Insects; Protozoa. Invertebrata; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
• ISSN: 0003-3472; 1095-8282
• DOI: 10.1006/anbe.2002.3048

Kinship theory implies that individual social Hymenoptera should be able to identify kin. We tested kin discrimination in the polygynous ponerine ant Gnamptogenys striatula. Mate choice experiments showed that individuals did not pair according to kinship. Experiments on matriline discrimination revealed that workers did not preferentially groom, transport (after nest disturbance) or cannibalize (after starvation) larvae on the basis of kin, when both related and unrelated larvae were present. These results show the absence of kin discrimination for the criteria and experimental conditions used. The lack of kin discrimination during mate choice in G. striatula can be explained by male dispersion and female philopatry, which reduces the likelihood of mating between siblings and of kin-based mate choice reflected in incest avoidance. The lack of matriline discrimination by workers may reflect permanent intracolony mutualism or the high cost of discrimination. Finally, it appears that the absence of kin discrimination in such contexts in G. striatula is not incompatible with kinship theory and may have been secondarily selected during social evolution. Copyright 2002 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.