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Road to Royalty – Transition of Potential Queen to Queen in the Primitively Eusocial Wasp R opalidia marginata
Author(s) -
Mitra Aniruddha,
Gadagkar Raghavendra
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
ethology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.739
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1439-0310
pISSN - 0179-1613
DOI - 10.1111/j.1439-0310.2012.02059.x
Subject(s) - eusociality , queen (butterfly) , biology , aggression , zoology , pheromone , dominance (genetics) , hymenoptera , ecology , psychology , social psychology , genetics , gene
R opalidia marginata , a primitively eusocial wasp, is different from typical primitively eusocial species in having docile queens who cannot be using dominance to maintain reproductive monopoly and instead appear to use a pheromone from the D ufour's gland to do so. When a docile queen is removed from her colony, one of the workers (potential queen, PQ ) becomes highly aggressive, and if the queen is not returned, gradually loses her aggression and becomes the new docile queen within a few days. We hypothesized that the decrease in aggression of the PQ with time since queen removal should be correlated with her change in ovaries and pheromone profile. Because the D ufour's gland hydrocarbon composition in R . marginata can be correlated with fertility, this also gave us an opportunity to test whether PQ is different from workers in her D ufour's gland hydrocarbons. In this study, we therefore trace the road to royalty in R . marginata , that is, the transition of the PQ during queen establishment, in terms of her ovaries, aggression, and D ufour's gland hydrocarbons. Our study focuses on queen establishment, which is important for understanding how reproductive conflict can be manifested and resolved.