Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T05:16:24.988Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

CANNIBALISTIC INFANTICIDE IN SOCIAL HYMENOPTERA RELATED TO ADULT CASTE RATIOS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2012

S. E. Flanders
S. E. Flanders
Affiliation:
Division of Biological Control, University of CaliforniaCitrus Research Centre and Agricultural Experiment Station, Riverside
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A review of the literature published during the past 80 years concerning caste differentiation and caste ratios in the social Hymenoptera reveals considerable evidence that caste is determined trophogenically in the embryo (alimentary castration) rather than in the larval instars and that the caste ratios of the embryonic populations in well-established colonies are soon modified by worker action, i.e. selective cannibalization of queen-biased eggs and young larvae, in order to establish the caste ratios of the adult population that are essential to the economy of the colony.

Type
Articles
Information
The Canadian Entomologist , Volume 102 , Issue 7 , July 1970 , pp. 898 - 905
Copyright
Copyright © Entomological Society of Canada 1970

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bartlett, B. R. 1964. Patterns in the host-feeding habits of adult parasitic Hymenoptera. Ann. ent. Soc. Am. 57: 344–350.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brian, M. V. 1957. Caste determination in social insects. A. Rev. Ent. 2: 107–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brian, M. V. 1965 a. Caste differentiation in social insects. Symp. zool. Soc. Lond. 14: 13–38.Google Scholar
Brian, M. V. 1965 b. Social insect populations. Academic Press, New York. 135 pp.Google Scholar
Brian, M. V., and Hibble, J.. 1964. Studies of caste determination in Myrmica rubra L. Caste-bias, queen age and influence. Insectes soc. 11: 223–238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cumber, R. A. 1949. The biology of bumble-bees, with special references to the production of the worker caste. Trans. R. ent. Soc. Lond. 100: 1–45.Google Scholar
Dadant, C. P. 1926. New observations on bees. Am. Bee J. 66: 41. [A translation of Francis Huber's Nouvelles observations sur les abeilles. I. 1792 and 11. 1814.]Google Scholar
Flanders, S. E. 1935. An apparent correlation between the feeding habits of certain pteromalids and the condition of their ovarian follicles. Ann. ent. Soc. Am. 28: 438–444.Google Scholar
Flanders, S. E. 1945. Is caste differentiation in ants a function of the rate of egg deposition? Science 101: 245–246.Google Scholar
Flanders, S. E. 1950. Regulation of ovulation and egg disposal in the parasitic Hymenoptera. Can. Ent. 82: 134–148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flanders, S. E. 1952. Ovisorption as the mechanism causing worker development in ants. J. econ. Ent. 45: 37–39.Google Scholar
Flanders, S. E. 1953. Caste determination in the social Hymenoptera. Sci. Mon. 76: 142–148.Google Scholar
Flanders, S. E. 1957 a. Regulation of caste in social Hymenoptera. J. N.Y. ent. Soc. 65: 97–105.Google Scholar
Flanders, S. E. 1957 b. Ovigenic-ovisorptive cycle in the economy of the honeybee. Sci. Mon. 85: 176–177.Google Scholar
Flanders, S. E. 1962. Physiological prerequisites of social reproduction in the Hymenoptera. Insectes Soc. 9: 375–388.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flanders, S. E. 1969. Social aspects of facultative gravidity and agravidity in Hymenoptera. Proc. 6th Congr. Int. Union for the Study of Social Insects. pp. 47–53.Google Scholar
Free, J. B. 1955. Queen production in colonies of bumblebees. Proc. R. ent. Soc. Lond. 30: 19–25.Google Scholar
Grout, R. A. [Editor] 1954. The Hive and the Honeybee. Dadant and Son, Hamilton, Ill. 652 pp.Google Scholar
Haydak, M. M. 1958. Do the nurse bees recognize the sex of the larvae? Science 127: 1113.Google Scholar
Huber, M. P. 1820. The natural history of ants. (Translated from the French by J. R. Johnson). Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orne and Brown, London. 398 pp.Google Scholar
King, P. E., and Ratcliffe, N. A.. 1969. The structure and possible mode of functioning of the female reproductive system in Nasonia vitripennis. (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae). J. Zool. Soc. Lond. 157: 319–344.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laidlaw, H. H., and Eckert, J. E.. 1962. Queen rearing. Univ. California Press, Berkeley. 165 pp.Google Scholar
Lloyd, D. O. 1966. Some aspects of egg resorption in Leptomastix dactylopii How. (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae). Entomophaga 11: 365–381.Google Scholar
Maeterlinck, M. 1901. The life of the bee. (Transl. by Sutro, Alfred.) Ballantyne, Hanson, London. 356 pp.Google Scholar
Marchal, P. 1897. La castration nutriciale chez les Hymenoptères sociaux. C. r. Soc. Biol. Paris. 4: 556–557.Google Scholar
Melampy, R. M., and Willis, E. R.. 1939. Respiratory metabolism during larval and pupal development of the female honeybee (Apis mellifera L.). Physiol. Zool. 12: 302–311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Michener, C. D. 1961. Social polymorphism in Hymenoptera. Symp. R. ent. Soc. Lond. 1: 41–55.Google Scholar
Michener, C. D. 1964. Reproductive efficiency in relation to colony size in hymenopterous societies. Insectes soc. 11: 317–342.Google Scholar
Michener, C. D. 1969. Comparative social behavior of bees. A. Rev. Ent. 14: 299–342.Google Scholar
Myzer, W. C. 1952. Ingestion of eggs by honeybee workers. Am. Bee J. 92: 67.Google Scholar
Peacock, A. D., Smith, I. C., Hall, D. W., and Baxter, A. T.. 1954. Studies in Pharoah's ant, Monomorium pharaonis (L.). 8: Male production by parthenogenesis. Entomologist's mon. Mag. 90: 154–158.Google Scholar
Reinhardt, E. 1960. Kernverhältnisse, Eisystem und Entwicklungsweise von Drohen und Arbeiterinneneiern der Honigbiene (Apis mellifera). Zool. Jb. (Anat.) 78: 167–234.Google Scholar
Richards, O. W. 1953. The social insects. Macdonald, London. 219 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schneirla, T. C., and Brown, R. Z.. 1952. Sexual broods and the production of young queens in two species of army ants. Zoologica 37: 5–31.Google Scholar
Shuel, R. W., and Dixon, S. E.. 1960. The early establishment of dimorphism in the female honeybee, Apis mellifera L. Insectes soc. 7: 265–282.Google Scholar
Simmonds, F. J. 1948. The influence of maternal physiology on the incidence of diapause. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. (B) 233: 385–414.Google Scholar
Smith, M. V. 1959. Queen differentiation and biological testing of royal jelly. Cornell Univ. agric. Exp. Stn Mem. 356.Google Scholar
Snodgrass, R. E. 1961. Animal societies, from slime mold to man. Smithsonian Rpt. for 1961. pp. 425–445.Google Scholar
Spencer, H. 1894. Origin of classes among “parasol” ants. Nature 51: 125–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weaver, N. 1957 a. Effects of larval age on the dimorphic differentiation of the female honeybee. Ann. ent. Soc. Am. 50: 283–294.Google Scholar
Weaver, N. 1957 b. Experiments on dimorphism in the female honeybee. J. econ. Ent. 50: 759–761.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weaver, N. 1966. Physiology of caste determination. A. Rev. Ent. 11: 79–102.Google Scholar
Weir, J. S. 1959. The influence of worker age on trophogenic larval dormancy in the ant Myrmica. Insectes soc. 6: 271–290.Google Scholar
Wheeler, W. M. 1928. The social insects. their origin and evolution. Harcourt Brace, New York. 378 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whiting, P. W. 1938. Anomalies and caste determination in ants. J. Hered. 29: 189–193.Google Scholar
Wilson, E. O. 1953. On Flanders' hypothesis of caste determination in ants. Psyche, Camb. 60: 15–20.Google Scholar
Wilson, E. O. 1968. The ergonomics of caste in the social insects. Am. Nat. 102: 41–66.Google Scholar
Woyke, J. 1963. Rearing and viability of diploid drone larvae. J. Apicult. Res. 2: 73–75, 77–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar