Authors: Alexandra Schrempf Christine Reber Alberto Tinaut Jürgen Heinze
Publish Date: 2004/12/07
Volume: 57, Issue: 5, Pages: 502-510
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=076±SE 012 and the high inbreeding coefficient F=055 95CI 045–065 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 onethird 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=068±SE 005 and would also be beneficial through decreasing diploid male load if sex was determined by a single locus complementary systemOur research was supported by DFG He 1623/122 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 JS Pedersen for advice concerning MateSoft and the calculation of the nondetection 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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