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

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Abstract

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.

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Acknowledgments

I am grateful to J.M. Herbers, L. Keller and P. Nonacs for critical readings of an early version of the manuscript. I also thank the members of the Kominato laboratory of the Marine Ecosystems Research Center of Chiba University for permission to use equipment in their laboratory.

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  1. E. Hasegawa

    Present address: Department of Ecology and Systematics, Graduate School of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Kita-ku, Sapporo, 060-8589, Japan

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  1. Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Minamiohsawa 1-1, Hachioji-si, Tokyo, 192-0364, Japan

    E. Hasegawa

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Hasegawa, E. Sex allocation in the ant Camponotus (Colobopsis) nipponicus (Wheeler): II. The effect of resource availability on sex-ratio variability. Insect. Soc. 60, 329–335 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00040-013-0297-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00040-013-0297-3

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