Trophallaxis and genetic relationships among workers in colonies of the polygynous antCamponotus yamaokai

摘要

To determine whether the workers of a polygynous species of ant,Camponotus yamaokai, exhibit trophallaxis preferentially toward highly related individuals or nonpreferentially toward any of their nestmates, we examined this behaviour among workers both when they were sufficiently fed and when they were maintained under starvation conditions. We found that trophallaxis among major workers and between major and minor workers was more frequent under starvation conditions than when sufficient food was available. The workers were observed to exhibit trophallaxis not preferentially toward highly related individuals, but nonpreferentially toward all workers with various degrees of relatedness. The within-nest relatedness among workers in all three colonies was very high, ranging from 0.62 to 0.65. Nonpreferential trophallaxis in this species is discussed in terms of the high degree of relatedness among nestmates.