Queen, worker ants and eggs of the species Cardiocondyla mauritanica (courtesy: University of Regensburg, Germany)

In ant colonies queens live longer if they do not compete with other queens. Competition with other queens reduces the life span and the amount of eggs produced by each single animal. This amazing finding was recently revealed by zoologist from the University of Regensburg, Germany. The scientists compared ant states with one single, two and eight queens and used different colonies of the ant species Cardiocondyla obscurior.

Neither agressions between the queens nor bad feeding by ant workers was found as reason of the reduced life spans of the single ant "archons". Rather the researchers in the workgroup of Prof. Dr. Juergen Heinze assume that a strong correlation between the development of the ant colony and the number of queens available determines the life span of each individual: the more queens are present in a colony the quicker the insect state grows and the less each queen is needed to build up a viable colony. If only one queen exists it takes longer until the colony develops and it is necessary that this one queen lives longer.

Further studies shall confirm this interesting insight into an insect state.

Source:

- http://idw-online.de/pages/de/news427258

- Social influence on age and reproduction: reduced lifespan and fecundity in multi-queen ant colonies; A. SCHREMPF, S. CREMER, J. HEINZE1;
Journal of Evolutionary Biology (2011) European Society For Evolutionary Biology, Volume 24, Issue 7, pages 1455

Tag it:

?

Add as favourites (146) | Quote this article on your site | Views: 1228 | E-mail

Be first to comment this article

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.

Powered by AkoComment Tweaked Special Edition