Vs. Banschbach et Jm. Herbers, COMPLEX COLONY STRUCTURE IN SOCIAL INSECTS .2. REPRODUCTION, QUEEN-WORKER CONFLICT, AND LEVELS OF SELECTION, Evolution, 50(1), 1996, pp. 298-307
Differences in colony structure between two populations of the forest
ant, Myrmica punctiventris, have had dramatic consequences on allocati
on to growth and reproduction. A population in Vermont, in which colon
ies have a single, once-mated queen, shows no evidence of inbreeding o
r population subdivision and has allocated 25% of sexual reproduction
to males in two consecutive years. In contrast, for a population in Ne
w York that is facultatively polygynous, we have evidence of microgeog
raphic genetic structure and inbreeding, and the populationwide alloca
tion ratio was extremely male-biased. Additionally, the Vermont popula
tion allocated much more energy to sexual reproduction than did the Ne
w York population. Detailed analysis of data from the Vermont populati
on, within which colonies undergo a seasonal cycle of expansion to mul
tiple nesting sites (polydomy), gave strong evidence of queen-worker c
onflict over male allocation and indicated that workers are winning th
at conflict. Finally, we used contextual analysis to find that fertili
ty selection operates almost exclusively at the level of the individua
l nest rather than at the higher level of the multinest colony.