Fire Ant Queen Longevity and Age: Estimation by Sperm Depletion
- 1 March 1987
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Annals of the Entomological Society of America
- Vol. 80 (2) , 263-266
- https://doi.org/10.1093/aesa/80.2.263
Abstract
Because ant queens mate only at the beginning of their reproductive lives and draw on this stored sperm for every female produced, the sperm content of the queen's spermatheca declines with age. The potential reproductive life of queens of the fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, was estimated in the field by determining the spermathecal sperm content of queens from colonies of increasing ages, and extrapolating their declining sperm counts to zero. Estimated potential life span was 6.77 yr for Tallahassee, Fla., ants and 5.83 yr for Gainesville, Fla., ants. These methods may have general utility in studying the demography of social Hymenoptera.This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit:
- Spermatozoon Counts in Males and Inseminated Queens of the Imported Fire Ants, Solenopsis invicta and Solenopsis richteri (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)The Florida Entomologist, 1985
- The physiology of reproduction in the pharaoh's ant (Monomorium pharaonis L.) 2. The unmated queensInsectes Sociaux, 1979
- A study of the conditions and mechanism of the diphenylamine reaction for the colorimetric estimation of deoxyribonucleic acidBiochemical Journal, 1956