Policing in queenless ponerine ants

By T. Monnin, Francis L. W. Ratnieks. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 2001

153 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract. Potential reproductive conflicts are common in insect societies. One process that can reduce or suppress conflict is policing. We review worker and "queen" policing in queenless ponerine ants. Queenless ants are an important model system for the study of intracolony reproductive conflict. Policing is widespread in queenless ants because workers are totipotent, so that additional potential conflicts occur in comparison to species where workers cannot mate, and these additional conflicts are frequently reduced by policing. Policing is more diverse than suggested by the examples known in other social insects. In almost all species of social Hymenoptera it can include preventing workers from reproducing by killing worker-laid eggs, but in queenless ants it can additionally include immobilisation or mutilation of workers attempting to reproduce by replacing the gamergate (i.e. mated worker with a queen-like role) or by becoming an extra gamergate. Policing by both workers and by the gamergate are important. Policing can be facultative. Depending on the age of the gamergate, workers can prevent her replacement by immobilising challenging workers or they can favour replacement by immobilising the gamergate. The initial definition of policing was inspired by species in which workers retain ovaries but cannot mate. We broaden the definition to include species, such as queenless ants, where females are totipotent, thereby including not only conflict over male production but also over gamergate replacement and gamergate number. Finally, we compare policing with punishment and dominance hierarchy. Policing is not always punishment and it does not necessarily entail dominance relationships.

Subfields: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Genetics, Insect Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/633f2a7218a7a475bcf1e459b53ec93b30502ae2

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In Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

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Citations in the corpus

Queen fertility, egg marking and colony size in the ant Camponotus floridanus (2006, unknown): “Workers are expected to control each other’s reproduction (worker policing) (Ratnieks 1988; Monnin and Ratnieks 2001), which may finally induce them to refrain from reproduction (self-policing) if the reduction of their indirect fitness is sufficiently high (Ratnieks and Reeve 1992; Frank 1995;…”
Spite: Hamilton's unproven theory (2001, background): “In addition, worker policing by direct aggression to reproductive workers occurs in queenless ants (Gobin et al. 1999, Kikuta & Tsuji 1999, Liebig et al. 1999, Monnin & Ratnieks 2001).”
Reproductive conflicts in social animals: who has power? (2003, methodology): “workers cannot distinguish between the male and female eggs laid by the gamergate, this gives the gamergate greater power over male production [ 26 ], but what if b waits until the eggs have hatched and”
Fertility signalling and reproductive skew in queenless ants (2004, background): “It is thus very risky for a high ranker to try to replace a fertile alpha, because she will be punished via immobilization (policing: Monnin & Ratnieks 2001; Monnin et al. 2002; Cuvillier-Hot et al. 2004).”
Chemical recognition of reproductive status in social insects (2006, background): “The destruction of worker-laid eggs, either by other workers or by the breeder (policing, e.g. Ratnieks 1988, Monnin & Ratnieks 2001), is common in social Hymenoptera (e.g. Vespine wasps, reviewed in Foster & Ratnieks [2001a]; Vespula vulgaris, Foster & Ratnieks [2001b]; Dolichovespula sylvestris,…”