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Science 8 November 1996:
Vol. 274. no. 5289, pp. 993 - 995
DOI: 10.1126/science.274.5289.993
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Reports

Conditional Manipulation of Sex Ratios by Ant Workers: A Test of Kin Selection Theory

Liselotte Sundström, * Michel Chapuisat, Laurent Keller

Variable queen mating frequencies provide a unique opportunity to study the resolution of worker-queen conflict over sex ratio in social Hymenoptera, because the conflict is maximal in colonies headed by a singly mated queen and is weak or nonexistent in colonies headed by a multiply mated queen. In the wood ant Formica exsecta, workers in colonies with a singly mated queen, but not those in colonies with a multiply mated queen, altered the sex ratio of queen-laid eggs by eliminating males to preferentially raise queens. By this conditional response to queen mating frequency, workers enhance their inclusive fitness.

L. Sundström, University of Lausanne, IZEA, Bâtiment de Biologie, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland; University of Bern, Ethologische Station Hasli, CH-3032 Hinterkappelen, Switzerland; and University of Aarhus, Department of Genetics and Ecology, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark.
M. Chapuisat, University of Lausanne, IZEA, Bâtiment de Biologie, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland, and Museum of Zoology, Palais de Rumine, Case Postale 448, CH-1000 Lausanne 17, Switzerland.
L. Keller, University of Lausanne, IZEA, Bâtiment de Biologie, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland, and University of Bern, Ethologische Station Hasli, CH-3032 Hinterkappelen, Switzerland.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed at University of Helsinki, Department of Ecology and Systematics, Post Office Box 17, FIN-00014, Helsinki University, Finland. E-mail: liselotte.sundstrom{at}helsinki.fi

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