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Developmental plasticity in the queen-polymorphic ant Temnothorax longispinosus

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Abstract

Females of social Hymenoptera show developmental plasticity in response to varying social and environmental conditions, though some species have strong genetic influences on the form of the female reproductives. In ants, a queen polymorphism can occur in which large queens initiate new colonies on their own, while small queens enter established nests. Most queen polymorphisms studied to date originate due to genetic differences between individuals of differing form. Here, we report on the development of female form in response to social factors within the nest in the queen-polymorphic ant Temnothorax longispinosus. Three queen size morphs occur: a rare large queen with higher fat stores that can found new colonies independently, a large queen that has low fat stores and is behaviorally flexible, and a small queen that rejoins the natal nest. Both in nesting units collected from the field and those reared in the lab, queen presence during larval development led to fewer larvae developing as gynes (virgin, winged queens), and most of those gynes were the small morph. This queen effect is transferred to developing gyne larvae by close, physical interaction between queens and workers, and causes slower larval development. We conclude that gyne size, and therefore reproductive behavior, in T. longispinosus is developmentally plastic in response to queen presence. Plasticity in reproductive behavior may be an adaptive response to the nest sites utilized by this species. T. longispinosus nests predominantly in acorns and hickory nuts, which can vary dramatically from 1 year to the next. Since queens are more likely to be present in each nesting unit when fewer nest sites are available, the queen effect that results in more small gynes produced links the expression of colony-founding traits to ecological conditions across habitat patches.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Larry and Nancy Dewey, Roland Rueckerts, Jeff Baylis, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the University of Wisconsin Arboretum for permission to work on their property. Nick Keuler and Peter Crump assisted with statistical analyses. Jeffrey Lewis helped care for ants. We thank two anonymous reviewers for comments improving the paper. Research was supported by the Zoology Department and the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison.

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Howard, K.J., Jeanne, R.L. Developmental plasticity in the queen-polymorphic ant Temnothorax longispinosus . Insect. Soc. 60, 179–189 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00040-013-0281-y

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