COMPLEX COLONY STRUCTURE IN SOCIAL INSECTS .2. REPRODUCTION, QUEEN-WORKER CONFLICT, AND LEVELS OF SELECTION

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.