Article Abstract:
Triploid females of social Hymenoptera may be more common than has been thought and are more likely to found in populations with substantial numbers of fertile diploid males than elsewhere. Origin and frequency of triploidy has been investigated in the fire ant Solenopsis invicta. A large microsatellite study has been made of fire ants of the two social types from native and introduced ranges, Argentina and the US. Surprisingly levels of triploidy, that is 12%, were found in nonreproductive females from an introduced polygyne population in the US. Triploid females were not found among reproductive queens from the same population, in females from monogyne populations in the introduced range or in females of either social type from the native range.
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Article Abstract:
Kin selection in eusocial Hymenoptera has been tested with sex allocation data. Because queens and workers differ in relatedness to females and males, the data offer a good way to assess effectiveness of kind selection. Stronger evidence that workers control sex allocation has come to light via cross-colony intraspecific studies of sex ratio variation. In sever species, colonies with high related ness asymmetry produced mostly females, unless colonies with low relatedness asymmetry, where mostly males were produced. More signs of worker control were seen in investigation of proximate mechanisms of sex ratio manipulation in wasps and ants. Worker control is not always effective.
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Article Abstract:
Wolbachia infection in the ant Formica exsecta and sex ratio are discussed. PCR assay was used to determine prevalence of Wolbachia in workers from colonies specializing in male and female production in a Swiss and a Finnish population. In neither population, was a significant association in the predicted direction between the prevalence of Wolbachia and colony sex ratio. Where more workers were infected, more females were not found. Another study population was in Switzerland and had colonies that typically have numerous queens. No association between relatedness asymmetry and sex allocation was seen in the Swiss population.
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