Ants provide one of the best examples of the division of labor in animal societies. While the queens reproduce, workers generally refrain from laying eggs and dedicate themselves exclusively to domestic tasks. In many species, the small diploid larvae are bipotent and can develop either into workers or queens depending mostly on environmental cues. This generates a conflicting situation between the adults that tend to rear a majority of larvae into workers and the larvae whose individual interest may be to develop into reproductive queens. We tested the social regulation of larval caste fate in the fission-performing ant Aphaenogaster senilis. We first observed interactions between resident workers and queen- and worker-destined larvae in presence/absence of the queen. The results show that workers tend to specifically eliminate queen-destined larvae when the queen is present but not when she is absent or imprisoned in a small cage allowing for volatile pheromone exchanges. In addition, we found that the presence of already developed queen-destined larvae does not inhibit the development of younger still bipotent larvae into queens. Finally, we analyzed the cuticular hydrocarbon profiles of queen- and worker-destined larvae and found no significant quantitative or qualitative difference. Interestingly, the total amount of hydrocarbons on both larval castes is extremely low, which lends credence on the chemical insignificance hypothesis of larval ants. Overall, our results suggest that workers control larval development and police larvae that would develop into queens instead of workers. Such policing behavior is similar in many aspects to what is known of worker policing among adults.

译文

蚂蚁提供了动物社会分工的最好例子之一。在皇后繁殖的同时,工人通常不产卵,而专门从事家务。在许多物种中,小二倍体幼虫是双能的,主要取决于环境线索,它们可以发育成工人或皇后。这在成虫之间产生了矛盾的局面,成虫倾向于将大部分幼虫抚养成工人,而幼虫的个人兴趣可能是发展成为生殖皇后。我们在裂变性能的蚂蚁Aphaenogaster senilis中测试了幼虫种姓命运的社会调节。我们首先观察到在存在/不存在女王的情况下,常驻工人与女王和工人指定的幼虫之间的相互作用。结果表明,当女王存在时,工人倾向于专门消除女王指定的幼虫,但当她不在或被囚禁在一个小笼子中,以便进行挥发性信息素交换时,则不会。此外,我们发现已经发育的皇后幼虫的存在不会抑制年轻的仍然是双能幼虫向皇后的发育。最后,我们分析了女王和工人指定的幼虫的表皮碳氢化合物分布,没有发现明显的定量或定性差异。有趣的是,两种幼虫种姓上的碳氢化合物总量都非常低,这为幼虫蚂蚁的化学无意义假说提供了依据。总体而言,我们的结果表明,工人控制幼虫的发育,而警用幼虫会发育成皇后而不是工人。这种警务行为在许多方面与成年人中工人警务的已知相似。

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