Caste-biased acceptance of non-nestmates in a polygynous ponerine ant

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2006.04.015 Byline: Tomonori Kikuchi, Kazuki Tsuji, Hitoshi Ohnishi, Julien Le Breton Abstract: We investigated the influence of caste on nestmate discrimination in the ponerine ant Pachycondyla luteipes, where workers lack functional ovaries and are totally sterile. Both a mark-and-recapture field experiment and an introduction experiment in the laboratory revealed intermixing of both nestmate and non-nestmate workers between nests. In the laboratory experiment, conspecific workers, both nestmate and non-nestmates, were almost always accepted. Workers' internest hostility was weak and did not correlate with the distance between nests over the geographical scale studied ( Author Affiliation: Faculty of Agriculture, University of the Ryukyus, Japan Article History: Received 24 May 2005; Revised 13 July 2005; Accepted 6 July 2006 Article Note: (miscellaneous) MS. number: 8553R