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Inbreeding and local mate competition in the ant Cardiocondyla batesii

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Abstract

The ant species Cardiocondyla batesii is unique in that, in contrast to all other ant species, both sexes are flightless. Female sexuals and wingless, ergatoid males mate in the nest in autumn and young queens disperse on foot to found their own colonies in spring. The close genetic relatedness between queens and their mates (rqm=0.76±SE 0.12) and the high inbreeding coefficient (F=0.55; 95%CI 0.45–0.65) suggest that 83% of all matings are between brothers and sisters. As expected from local mate competition theory, sex ratios were extremely female biased, with more than 85% of all sexuals produced being young queens. Despite the common occurrence of inbreeding, we could not detect any adult diploid males. Though the probability of not detecting multiple mating was relatively high, at least one-third of all queens in our sample had mated more than once. Multiple mating to some extent counteracts the effects of inbreeding on worker relatedness (rww=0.68±SE 0.05) and would also be beneficial through decreasing diploid male load, if sex was determined by a single locus complementary system.

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Acknowledgements

Our research was supported by DFG (He 1623/12-2), DAAD (Acciones integradas) and the “INSECTS” research network of the Universities of Copenhagen, Florence, Keele, Lausanne, Oulu, Regensburg, Sheffield, and the ETH Zürich, financed by the European Commission via the Research Training Network established under the Improving Human Potential Programme. We thank T. Wanke, M. Strätz, S. Cremer, and M. Brandt for their help in the field, J.S. Pedersen for advice concerning MateSoft and the calculation of the non-detection error under inbreeding, and the referees for detailed and helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article. All experiments were performed in agreement with the laws of Germany.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lehrstuhl Biologie I, Universität Regensburg, Universitätsstr. 31, 93043 , Regensburg, Germany

    Alexandra Schrempf & Jürgen Heinze

  2. ETH Zürich, Ecology and Evolution, ETH-Zentrum NW, 8092 , Zürich, Switzerland

    Christine Reber

  3. Departamento de Biología Animal y Ecología, Universidad de Granada, 18071 , Granada, Spain

    Alberto Tinaut

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  1. Alexandra Schrempf
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Correspondence to Alexandra Schrempf.

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Communicated by L. Sundström

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Schrempf, A., Reber, C., Tinaut, A. et al. Inbreeding and local mate competition in the ant Cardiocondyla batesii. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 57, 502–510 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-004-0869-3

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