Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Are behavioral classifications blinders to studying natural variation?
- 2 Life beneath silk walls: a review of the primitively social Embiidina
- 3 Postovulation parental investment and parental care in cockroaches
- 4 The spectrum of eusociality in termites
- 5 Maternal care in the Hemiptera: ancestry, alternatives, and current adaptive value
- 6 Evolution of paternal care in the giant water bugs (Heteroptera: Belostomatidae)
- 7 The evolution of sociality in aphids: a clone's-eye view
- 8 Ecology and evolution of social behavior among Australian gall thrips and their allies
- 9 Interactions among males, females and offspring in bark and ambrosia beetles: the significance of living in tunnels for the evolution of social behavior
- 10 Biparental care and social evolution in burying beetles: lessons from the larder
- 11 Subsocial behavior in Scarabaeinae beetles
- 12 The evolution of social behavior in Passalidae (Coleoptera)
- 13 The evolution of social behavior in the augochlorine sweat bees (Hymenoptera: Halictidae) based on a phylogenetic analysis of the genera
- 14 Demography and sociality in halictine bees (Hymenoptera: Halictidae)
- 15 Behavioral environments of sweat bees (Halictinae) in relation to variability in social organization
- 16 Intrinsic and extrinsic factors associated with social evolution in allodapine bees
- 17 Cooperative breeding in wasps and vertebrates: the role of ecological constraints
- 18 Morphologically ‘primitive’ ants: comparative review of social characters, and the importance of queen–worker dimorphism
- 19 Social conflict and cooperation among founding queens in ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
- 20 Social evolution in the Lepidoptera: ecological context and communication in larval societies
- 21 Sociality and kin selection in Acari
- 22 Colonial web-building spiders: balancing the costs and benefits of group-living
- 23 Causes and consequences of cooperation and permanent-sociality in spiders
- 24 Explanation and evolution of social systems
- Organism index
- Subject index
19 - Social conflict and cooperation among founding queens in ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Are behavioral classifications blinders to studying natural variation?
- 2 Life beneath silk walls: a review of the primitively social Embiidina
- 3 Postovulation parental investment and parental care in cockroaches
- 4 The spectrum of eusociality in termites
- 5 Maternal care in the Hemiptera: ancestry, alternatives, and current adaptive value
- 6 Evolution of paternal care in the giant water bugs (Heteroptera: Belostomatidae)
- 7 The evolution of sociality in aphids: a clone's-eye view
- 8 Ecology and evolution of social behavior among Australian gall thrips and their allies
- 9 Interactions among males, females and offspring in bark and ambrosia beetles: the significance of living in tunnels for the evolution of social behavior
- 10 Biparental care and social evolution in burying beetles: lessons from the larder
- 11 Subsocial behavior in Scarabaeinae beetles
- 12 The evolution of social behavior in Passalidae (Coleoptera)
- 13 The evolution of social behavior in the augochlorine sweat bees (Hymenoptera: Halictidae) based on a phylogenetic analysis of the genera
- 14 Demography and sociality in halictine bees (Hymenoptera: Halictidae)
- 15 Behavioral environments of sweat bees (Halictinae) in relation to variability in social organization
- 16 Intrinsic and extrinsic factors associated with social evolution in allodapine bees
- 17 Cooperative breeding in wasps and vertebrates: the role of ecological constraints
- 18 Morphologically ‘primitive’ ants: comparative review of social characters, and the importance of queen–worker dimorphism
- 19 Social conflict and cooperation among founding queens in ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
- 20 Social evolution in the Lepidoptera: ecological context and communication in larval societies
- 21 Sociality and kin selection in Acari
- 22 Colonial web-building spiders: balancing the costs and benefits of group-living
- 23 Causes and consequences of cooperation and permanent-sociality in spiders
- 24 Explanation and evolution of social systems
- Organism index
- Subject index
Summary
‘It is thus that mutual cowardice keeps us in peace.’
Samuel JohnsonABSTRACT
The colony founding phase is a unique period in the life cycle of social insects in which young reproductives have an option to be either solitary or social. We review the literature on pleometrosis in ants with a special emphasis on the founding processes by Azteca constructor and A. xanthacroa nesting in Cecropia trees. Azteca colonies are established in three distinct ways: by single queens, by single–species groups of queens, and by mixed–species groups. Pleometrotic colonies of both single species and mixed species tend to outcompete haplometrotic colonies by (1) producing much larger first worker cohorts; (2) migrating upward within the Cecropia tree earlier; and (3) eventually taking exclusive control of the tree. The fact that mixed– species Azteca colonies are nearly as successful and cooperative as their single–species counterparts provides a clear–cut case where inclusive fitness is not a prime selective factor for foundress association. Although many studies of pleometrotic ants measure the number of workers produced and the timing of first worker emergence, such measures do not account for reproduction because workers are merely a means by which a queen produces reproductive offspring. Colonies with larger and more rapidly produced worker forces tend to survive better, largely because they are likely to prevail over smaller colonies via interference or exploitation competition.
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- Information
- The Evolution of Social Behaviour in Insects and Arachnids , pp. 392 - 406Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1997
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