Can Dufour's gland compounds honestly signal fertility in the primitively eusocial wasp Ropalidia marginata?

Mitra, Aniruddha ; Gadagkar, Raghavendra (2011) Can Dufour's gland compounds honestly signal fertility in the primitively eusocial wasp Ropalidia marginata? Naturwissenschaften, 98 (2). pp. 157-161. ISSN 0028-1042

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Official URL: http://www.springerlink.com/content/l1m30427g85146...

Related URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00114-010-0749-9

Abstract

Unlike queens of typical primitively eusocial species, Ropalidia marginata queens are docile and non-interactive, and hence cannot be using dominance to maintain their status. It appears that the queen maintains reproductive monopoly through a pheromone, of which the Dufour's gland is at least one source. Here, we reconfirm earlier results showing that queens and workers can be correctly classified on a discriminant function using the compositions of their respective Dufour's glands, and also demonstrate consistent queen-worker differences based on categories of compounds and on single compounds also in some cases. Since the queen pheromone is expected to be an honest signal of the fecundity of a queen, we investigate the correlation of Dufour's gland compounds with ovarian activation of queens. Our study shows that Dufour's gland compounds in R. marginata correlate with the state of ovarian activation of queens, suggesting that such compounds may portray the fecundity of a queen, and may indeed function as honest signals of fertility.

Item Type:Article
Source:Copyright of this article belongs to Springer.
Keywords:Ropalidia marginata; Queen Pheromone; Dufour's Gland; Ovarian Activation; Honest Signal
ID Code:75436
Deposited On:22 Dec 2011 14:19
Last Modified:22 Dec 2011 14:19

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