Citation:
 | 1995_evans_pierce.pdf | 983 KB |
Date Published:
JanAbstract:
Laboratory experiments manipulating the diet of colonies of the facultatively polygynous ant, Leptothorax curvispinosus (Mayr), demonstrated that carbohydrates and protein have synergistic effects on egg numbers and brood production in colonies of this ant. Colonies receiving insect prey and sucrose grew significantly faster than colonies reared on unlimited supplies of either of these food types alone. This study also measured the effect of queen number on colony growth rates. Because the occurrence of multiple queens might affect colony growth only under certain nutritional conditions, polygynous colonies were reared in each of the three diet treatments. Queen number did not affect colony worker production in any of the three diet treatments; thus, individual queens in polygynous colonies produced far fewer workers per queen than did queens in monogynous colonies. There were no interaction effects between queen number and diet on colony growth. Several colonies which lacked morphologically distinct queens produced workers over the course of the experiment Using artificially established colonies of unmated workers, we found no evidence for parthenogenetic (thelytokous) reproduction in these colonies.
Notes:
Tp959Times Cited:9Cited References Count:25
