Nutrient allocation for somatic maintenance and worker production by the queen of the Japanese black carpenter ant, Camponotus japonicus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Abstract

Because queens of claustral colony-founding ants raise their first workers without foraging outside the nest, the number of first workers produced depends on the nutrient reserves of the queen when she begins to establish the colony. Although a low mortality rate of queens may be expected because they seal themselves off in the nest chambers, they do face a risk of starvation. Therefore, the queens must allocate nutrients for somatic maintenance and worker production, including the feeding of larvae. However, there are few reports on the nutrient consumption of queens. To clarify the nutrient resource utilization of claustral colony-founding queens, newly mated queens of the Japanese black carpenter ant, Camponotus japonicus (Mayr), were collected just after the nuptial flight and reared in an incubator at 25 °C in the dark. The non-lipid mass and lipid mass of the queens were measured at 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 52 days after the nuptial flight. A significant decline in the non-lipid mass was found in the queens after hatching of larvae. In contrast, the lipid mass of the queen decreased soon after the nuptial flight. The results indicate that the somatic maintenance of the founding queens relies exclusively on lipids, while other nutrients, such as protein, may be used for feeding the larvae.