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CANNIBALISTIC INFANTICIDE IN SOCIAL HYMENOPTERA RELATED TO ADULT CASTE RATIOS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2012

S. E. Flanders
S. E. Flanders
Affiliation:
Division of Biological Control, University of CaliforniaCitrus Research Centre and Agricultural Experiment Station, Riverside
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Abstract

A review of the literature published during the past 80 years concerning caste differentiation and caste ratios in the social Hymenoptera reveals considerable evidence that caste is determined trophogenically in the embryo (alimentary castration) rather than in the larval instars and that the caste ratios of the embryonic populations in well-established colonies are soon modified by worker action, i.e. selective cannibalization of queen-biased eggs and young larvae, in order to establish the caste ratios of the adult population that are essential to the economy of the colony.

Type
Articles
Information
The Canadian Entomologist , Volume 102 , Issue 7 , July 1970 , pp. 898 - 905
Copyright
Copyright © Entomological Society of Canada 1970

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