No reversion to single mating in a socially parasitic ant

Social Hymenoptera are ideal biological models for the study of the selective forces affecting the evolution of multiple mating (polyandry), because sister species can evolve different lifestyles and mating strategies. Single mating is predicted in workerless social parasites, because the key benefi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of evolutionary biology 2011-05, Vol.24 (5), p.1128-1134
Main Authors: THURIN, N, ARON, S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal reproduction
Animals
Ants
Biological Evolution
Evolution
Evolutionary biology
Female
Formicidae
Genetic diversity
genetic variation
inquilinism
Insects
Male
mating frequency
Parasites
pedigree
Plagiolepis
polyandry
population genetics
progeny
Sexual Behavior, Animal
Social Behavior
social insects
social parasitism
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Summary:Social Hymenoptera are ideal biological models for the study of the selective forces affecting the evolution of multiple mating (polyandry), because sister species can evolve different lifestyles and mating strategies. Single mating is predicted in workerless social parasites, because the key benefit of multiple mating in social insects, that is, the increase in genetic diversity among worker offspring, does not hold for workerless species. We compared the queen mating frequency between the ant Plagiolepis pygmaea and its derived social parasite P. xene. Previous studies showed that queens of the host P. pygmaea are obligately polyandrous. Here, pedigree analyses of mother-offspring combinations indicate that queens of the parasite P. xene did not revert to single mating; more than 50% of queens mated multiply, with 2-4 males. This result shows that reversal from multiple to single mating may be not selected in polyandrous social insect workerless parasites. We propose that such reversion does not occur when multiple mating is virtually cost free.
ISSN:1010-061X
1420-9101
DOI:10.1111/j.1420-9101.2011.02246.x