STORAGE PROTEINS IN ANTS DURING DEVELOPMENT AND COLONY FOUNDING

Three classes of storage proteins from larvae of four species of ants (Crematogaster opuntiae, Pheidole spadonia, Solenopsis xyloni and Cono myrma sp.) were identified and characterized for native and subunit si zes, density and amino acid composition. First, hexamerins contained m oderately high proportions of aromatic amino acids ((x) over bar = 12. 9 mol%). A second type of storage protein contained extremely high pro portions of glutamine/glutamic acid ((x) over bar = 21.1 mol%). Third, dimeric proteins had densities suggesting they were very high density lipoproteins (VHDL). These VHDLs may be homologous with similar prote ins that carry chromophores in Lepidoptera. The same types of storage proteins found in larvae were also present in the fat bodies of adult queens at the time of their mating flights, The class of the dominant protein varied with species. In Cr. opuntiae queens, storage proteins were almost completely depleted during colony founding. In ants, the a bility of adult females to express storage protein genes may have been an important step in the evolution of the claustral mode of colony in itiation, in which females can produce the first set of workers withou t leaving the nest to search of food.