Histological study of the spermatheca in three thelytokous parthenogenetic ant species, Pristomyrmex punctatus, Pyramica membranifera and Monomorium triviale (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Acta Zoologica

Volumn 93, Issue 2, 2012, Pages 200-207

  Gotoh, Ayako ^a   Billen, Johan ^b   Tsuji, Kazuki ^c   Sasaki, Tomonori ^c   Ito, Fuminori ^a  

^a KAGAWA UNIVERSITY   (Japan)

^b UNIVERSITY OF LEUVEN   (Belgium)

^c UNIVERSITY OF THE RYUKYUS   (Japan)

Author keywords

Ants; Relative spermatheca size; Spermatheca morphology; Thelytokous parthenogenesis

Indexed keywords

ANT; FEMALE; HISTOLOGY; MORPHOLOGY; SEXUAL REPRODUCTION; SPERMATOPHORE; THELYTOKY;

FORMICIDAE; HYMENOPTERA; MONOMORIUM TRIVIALE; PRISTOMYRMEX PUNCTATUS; PYRAMICA MEMBRANIFERA;

EID: 84858330049     PISSN: 00017272     EISSN: 14636395     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1463-6395.2010.00498.x     Document Type: Article

References (45)

1. Bene, G. D., Cavallo, V., Lupetti, P. and Dallai, R. 1998. Ultrastructure of the accessory gland in the parthenogenetic thrips Heliothrips haemorrhoidalis (Bouche) (Thysanoptera: Thripidae). International Journal of Insect Morphology and Embryology27: 255-261.
2. Bolton, B. 1999. Ant genera of the tribe Dacetonini (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Journal of Natural History33: 1639-1689.
3. Dobata, S. and Tsuji, K. 2009. A cheater lineage in a social insect: Implications for the evolution of cooperation in the wild. Communitative and Integrative Biology2: 67-70.
4. Dobata, S., Sasaki, T., Mori, H., Hasegawa, E., Shimada, M. and Tsuji, K. 2009. Cheater genotypes in the parthenogenetic ant Pristomyrmex punctatus. Proceedings of the Royal Society B276: 567-574.
5. Dobata, S., Mori, H., Sasaki, T., Hasegawa, E., Shimada, M. and Tsuji, K. 2010. Persistence of the single lineage of transmissible "social cancer" in an asexual ant. Molecular Ecology doi: 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2010.04954.x.
6. Gobin, B., Ito, F., Peeters, C. and Billen, J. 2006. Queen-worker differences in spermatheca reservoir of phylogenetically basal ants. Cell and Tissue Research326: 169-178.
7. Gobin, B., Ito, F., Billen, J. and Peeters, C. 2008. Degeneration of sperm reservoir and the loss of mating ability in worker ants. Naturwissenschaften95: 1041-1048.
8. Gotoh, A., Billen, J., Hashim, R. and Ito, F. 2008. Comparison of spermatheca morphology between reproductive and non-reproductive females in social wasps. Arthropod Structure and Development37: 199-209.
9. Gotoh, A., Billen, J., Hashim, R. and Ito, F. 2009. Evolution of specialized spermatheca morphology in ant queens: Insight from comparative developmental biology between ants and polistine wasps. Arthropod Structure and Development38: 521-525.
10. Hartmann, A., Wantia, J. and Heinze, J. 2005. Facultative sexual reproduction in the parthenogenetic ant Platythyrea punctata. Insectes Sociaux52: 155-162.
11. Himler, A. G., Caldera, E. J., Baer, B. C., Fernández-Marín, H. and Mueller, U. G. 2009. No sex in fungus-farming ants or their crops. Proceedings of the Royal Society B276: 2611-2616.
12. Hölldobler, B. and Wilson, E. O. 1990. The Ants. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
13. Hughes, W. O. H. and Boomsma, J. J. 2004. Genetic diversity and disease resistance in leaf-cutting ant societies. Evolution58: 1251-1260.
14. Hughes, W. O. H. and Boomsma, J. J. 2008. Genetic royal cheats in leaf-cutting ant societies. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America105: 5150-5153.
15. Ito, F. and Ohkawara, K. 1994. Spermatheca size differentiation between queens and workers in primitive ants: Relationship with reproductive structure of colonies. Naturwissenschaften81: 138-140.
16. Ito, F., Touyama, Y., Gotoh, A., Kitahiro, S. and Billen, J. 2010. Thelytokous parthenogenesis by queens in the dacetine ant Pyramica membranifera (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Naturwissenschaften97: 725-728.
17. Itow, T., Kobayashi, K., Kubota, M., Ogata, K., Imai, H. T. and Crozier, R. H. 1984. The reproductive cycle of the queenless ant Pristomyrmex pungens. Insectes Sociaux31: 87-102.
18. Keller, L. 1998. Queen lifespan and colony characteristics in ants and termites. Insectes Sociaux45: 235-246.
19. Khila, A. and Abouheif, E. 2010. Evaluating the role of reproductive constraints in ant social evolution. Proceedings of the Royal Society B365: 617-630.
20. Lehmann, G. U., Strauss, J. and Lakes-Harlan, R. 2007. Listening when there is no sexual signalling? Maintenance of hearing in the asexual bushcricket Poecilimon intermedius. Journal of Comparative Physiology A193: 537-545.
21. Maeta, Y., Kubota, N. and Sakagami, S. F. 1987. Nomada japonica as a thelytokous cleptoparasitic bee, with notes on egg size and egg complement in some cleptoparasitic bees. Kontyu55: 21-31.
22. Martins, G. F., Serrão, J. E. and Furieri, K. S. 2005. Notes on the spermatheca of Vespidae and Sphecidae (Hymenoptera). Sociobiology45: 119-127.
23. Mattila, H. R. and Seeley, T. D. 2007. Genetic diversity in honey bee colonies enhances productivity and fitness. Science317: 362-364.
24. Maynard Smith, J. 1978. The Evolution of Sex. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
25. Ogata, K. and Okido, H. 2007. Revision of the ant genus Perissomyrmex, with notes on the phylogeny of the tribe Myrmecinini. Memoirs of the American Entomological Institute80: 352-369.
26. Pabalan, N., Davey, K. G. and Packer, L. 1996. Comparative morphology of spermathecae in solitary and primitively eusocial bees (Hymenoptera; Apidea). Canadian Journal of Zoology74: 802-808.
27. Porter, M. L. and Crandall, K. A. 2003. Lost along the way: The significance of evolution in reverse. Trends in Ecology and Evolution18: 541-547.
28. Rabeling, C., Lino-Neto, J., Cappellari, S. C., Dos-Santos, I. A., Mueller, U. G. and Bacci., M.Jr 2009. Thelytokous parthenogenesis in the fungus-gardening ant Mycocepurus smithii (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). PLoS ONE4: e6781.
29. Ratnieks, F. L. W., Foster, K. R. and Wenseleers, T. 2006. Conflict resolution in insect societies. Annual Review of Entomology51: 581-608.
30. Ravary, F. and Jaisson, P. 2004. Absence of individual sterility in thelytokous colonies of the ant Cerapachys biroi Forel (Formicidae, Cerapachyinae). Insectes Sociaux51: 67-73.
31. Reber, A., Castella, G., Christe, P. and Chapuisat, M. 2008. Experimentally increased group diversity improves disease resistance in an ant species. Ecology Letters11: 682-689.
32. Sasaki, T. and Tsuji, K. 2003. Behavioral property of unusual large workers in the ant, Pristomyrmex pungens. Journal of Ethology21: 145-151.
33. Schilder, K., Heinze, J. and Hölldobler, B. 1999. Colony structure and reproduction in the thelytokous parthenogenetic ant Platythyrea punctata (F Smith) (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Insectes Sociaux46: 150-158.
34. Schoeters, E. and Billen, J. 2000. The importance of the spermathecal duct in bumblebees. Journal of Insect Physiology46: 1303-1312.
35. Seeley, T. D. and Tarpy, D. R. 2007. Queen promiscuity lowers disease within honeybee colonies. Proceedings of the Royal Society274: 67-72.
36. Simon, J. C., Delmotte, F., Rispe, C. and Crease, T. 2003. Phylogenetic relationships between parthenogens and their sexual relatives: The possible routes to parthenogenesis in animals. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society79: 151-163.
37. Tsuji, K. 1988. Obligate parthenogenesis and reproductive division of labor in the Japanese queenless ant Pristomyrmex pungens. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology23: 247-255.
38. Tsuji, K. 1995. Reproductive conflicts and levels of selection in the ant Pristomyrmex pungens: Contextual analysis and partitioning of covariance. American Naturalist146: 586-607.
39. Tsuji, K. and Yamauchi, K. 1995. Production of females by parthenogenesis in the ant, Cerapachys biroi. Insectes Sociaux42: 333-336.
40. Vrijenhoek, R. C. 1998. Animal clones and diversity: Are natural clones generalists or specialists?BioScience48: 617-628.
41. Wang, M. 2003. A monographic revision of the ant genus Pristomyrmex (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 157: 383-542.
42. Wenseleers, T., Helantera, H., Hart, A. and Ratnieks, F. L. W. 2004. Worker reproduction and policing in insect societies: An ESS analysis. Journal of Evolutional Biology17: 1035-1047.
43. West, S. A., Lively, C. M. and Read, A. F. 1999. A pluralist approach to sex and recombination. Journal of Evolutionary Biology12: 1003-1012.
44. Wheeler, D. E. and Krutzsch, P. H. 1994. Ultrastructure of the spermatheca and its associated gland in the ant Crematogaster opuntiae (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Zoomorphology114: 203-212.
45. Wiernasz, D. C., Hines, J., Parker, D. G. and Cole, B. J. 2008. Mating for variety increases foraging activity in the harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex occidentalis. Molecular Ecology17: 1137-1144.