Showing papers by "Fuminori Ito published in 1988"
TL;DR: Queenless satellite nests were most abundant in the autumn to winter, unlike hitherto studied polydomous ants which usually show the peak of nest density in the summer, suggesting that the dead bamboos limited nest space.
Abstract: Colonial growth and development of a bamboo carpenter antCamponotus kiusiuensis was studied both by cultivation in the laboratory and by regular sampling in bamboo thickets. The mean mortality of immatures was 44.9±SD 7.5% during claustral colony foundation by a queen: 25.3±8.1% in eggs, 19.4±9.9% in larvae, 3.9±6.3% in prepupae and 4.2±5.6% in pupae. Although the first workers were monomorphic, polymorphism was developed by an increase in larger workers with the growth of colony, achieving the full variation of worker size at population level of about 100 adults. Well-developed colonies were monogynous and polydomous. Queenless satellite nests were most abundant in the autumn to winter, unlike hitherto studied polydomous ants which usually show the peak of nest density in the summer, suggesting that the dead bamboos limited nest space. The scale of polydomy was remarkably dependent on the population size of the colony. Although the alates were more abundant in queenless nests than in queenright nests, the negative effect of queens on the production was not so strong as in the species hitherto reported.
15 citations