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Science 17 August 2001:
Vol. 293. no. 5533, pp. 1308 - 1310
DOI: 10.1126/science.1062076
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Reports

Queen Control of Sex Ratio in Fire Ants

L. Passera,1 S. Aron,2 E. L. Vargo,3 L. Keller4*

The haplodiploid sex-determination system of ants gives rise to conflict between queens and workers over colony sex ratios, and the female-biased allocation ratios seen in many species suggest that workers often prevail in this conflict. We exchanged queens between male- and female-specialist colonies of the fire ant Solenopsis invicta. These exchanges quickly reversed the sex-ratio biases of adopting colonies. The sex ratio of queen-laid eggs differed strongly between male- and female-specialist colonies. These findings suggest that queens can force workers to raise male sexuals by limiting the number of female brood and help to explain why sex investment ratios lie between the queen and worker equilibria in this and many other ant species.

1 Laboratory of Ethology and Animal Cognition, FRE-CNRS 2382, University Paul-Sabatier, Toulouse Cedex 31062, France.
2 Unit of Animal Communities, Free University of Brussels, Brussels 1050, Belgium.
3 Department of Entomology, Campus Box 7613, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7613, USA.
4 Institute of Ecology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne 1015, Switzerland.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: Laurent.keller{at}ie-zea.unil.ch

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