• Corpus ID: 54834567

FORAGING AND RECRUITMENT IN PONERINE ANTS: SOLITARY HUNTING IN THE QUEENLESS

@inproceedings{Berthoudi2006FORAGINGAR,
  title={FORAGING AND RECRUITMENT IN PONERINE ANTS: SOLITARY HUNTING IN THE QUEENLESS},
  author={Ophthalmopone Berthoudi},
  year={2006}
}

• Ophthalmopone Berthoudi
• Published 2006
• Biology

Recent studies have indicated that, in ponerine ants, a eusocial organization is viable without the presence of a queen caste. In Rhytidoponera (Haskins and Whelden, 1965; Ward, 1983; Pamilo et al., 1985) and Ophthalmopone berthoudi (Peeters and Crewe, 19851, some of the workers (= gamergates; Peeters and Crewe, 1984) engage in sexual reproduction. Although there is still reproductive division of labor within the colonies, the loss of the queen caste represents a retrogression since the replacement egg-layers lack specialized ovaries. It is of interest to discover whether other aspects of the colonial organization of permanently queenless ponerines have changed with this modification in the reproductive structure. One consequence of this change is that queenless colonies have low levels of relatedness among nest inhabitants (there are many mated laying workers), and Ward (1981, 1983) has suggested that this leads to lower levels of altruistic behavior. Thus Ward would expect colony defence and foraging efficiency to be less well-developed in these species. The natural history of more species of queenless ponerines needs to be documented in order to test the validity of this opinion. The genus Ophthalmopone belongs to the tribe Ponerini (subtribe Poneriti), and is derived from Pachycondyla (W. L. Brown, pers. comm.). 0. berthoudi Fore1 occurs in AngolaJ ZambiaJ Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and the eastern part of South Africa (Prinz, 1978). The workers are monomorphic, and it is exclusively termitophagous. Alfred Ilg described columns of hunting ants in 0 . ilgi