Worker Survival and Egg Production-But Not Transcriptional Activity-Respond to Queen Number in the Highly Polygynous, Invasive Ant Tapinoma magnum.

ABSTRACT: In social animals, reproductive activity and ageing are influenced by group composition. In monogynous (single-queen) insect societies, queen presence affects worker fecundity and longevity, but less is known about worker responses to queen number variation in polygynous (multi-queen) species or how queens age in these systems. We created queenless, one-queen and two-queen colonies of the invasive, polygynous ant Tapinoma magnum to examine the effect of queen number on worker survival, ovary and oocyte development, oxidative stress resistance and fat body gene expression. We also compared the fecundity and brain and fat body transcriptomes between young and old queens. Queenless workers experienced the highest mortality, contrasting with monogynous species, where queen removal typically ex

SUBMITTER: Lenhart A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11874646 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature