Relatedness modulates reproductive competition among queens in ant societies with multiple queens

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dc.contributor.affiliationUniversity of Oulu - Helanterä, Heikki
dc.contributor.affiliationTvärminne Zoological Station* - Helanterä, Heikki
dc.contributor.affiliationUniversity of Helsinki - Ozan, Martina
dc.contributor.affiliationUniversity of Helsinki - Sundström, Lotta
dc.contributor.authorHelanterä, Heikki
dc.contributor.authorHelanterä, Heikki
dc.contributor.authorOzan, Martina
dc.contributor.authorSundström, Lotta
dc.date.accessioned2025-03-24T15:14:58Z
dc.date.issued2022-12-20
dc.date.issued2022-12-20
dc.descriptionReproductive sharing in animal groups with multiple breeders, insects and vertebrates alike, contains elements of both conflict and cooperation, and depends on both relatedness between co-breeders, as well as their internal and external conditions. We studied how queens of the ant Formica fusca adjust their reproductive efforts in response to experimental manipulations of the kin competition regime in their nest, as well as their own reproductive status. Queens respond to the presence of competitors by increasing their egg laying efforts, but only if the competitors are highly fecund and distantly related. Furthermore, queens only engage in cannibalism of eggs when the risk of erroneously destroying own offspring is absent. We demonstrate that queens of Formica fusca fine-tune their behaviours in response to kinship and fecundity of others as well as their own physiological state in a manner that is unusually precise for any cooperative breeder.
dc.identifierhttps://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.r2280gbh9
dc.identifier.urihttps://hydatakatalogi-test-24.it.helsinki.fi/handle/123456789/9449
dc.rightsOpen
dc.rights.licensecc-zero
dc.subjectFormica fusca
dc.subjectreproductive skew
dc.subjectKin discrimination
dc.subjectInclusive fitness
dc.subjectConflict
dc.subjectcooperation
dc.titleRelatedness modulates reproductive competition among queens in ant societies with multiple queens
dc.typedataset
dc.typedataset

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