Possible Importance of Relatedness in the Fire Ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren (Hymemoptera: Formicidae) in the United States1
- 1 November 1983
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Annals of the Entomological Society of America
- Vol. 76 (6) , 989-991
- https://doi.org/10.1093/aesa/76.6.989
Abstract
The fire ant was accidentally introduced from southern Brazil to Mobile, Ala., some time between 1933 and 1940 and has spread throughout the southeastern United States. The coefficient of genetic relationship of female fire ants was calculated on the assumption that only one or a few females was originally introduced and that each was mated with one to several males. The model shows that relatedness stabilizes in fewer than 10 generations and that the ultimate relatedness is more strongly affected by the number of females in the original inoculum than by the number of males mating with each female. The results are discussed in light of the potential effect of relatedness on the social biology of the fire ant in the United States.Keywords
This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit:
- Monogyny and Polygyny in the Fire Ant, Solenopsis invicta1Annals of the Entomological Society of America, 1980