Data from: Reproductive conflicts in polyandrous and polygynous ant Formica sanguinea

The occurrence of multiple reproductives within an ant colony changes the balance between indirect fitness benefits and reproductive competition. We test whether the number of matings by an ant queen (polyandry) correlates negatively with the number of reproductive queens in the colony (polygyny), whether the patrilines and matrilines differ in their contribution to the sexual and worker progeny and whether there is an overall reproductive skew. For these aims, we genotyped both worker and sexual offspring from colonies of the ant Formica sanguinea in three populations. Most colonies were monogynous, but eight (11%) were polygynous with closely related queens. Most queens in the monogynous colonies (86%) had mated with multiple males. The effective paternity was lower than the actual number of mates, and the paternity skew was significant. Furthermore, in some monogynous colonies, the patrilines were differently represented in the worker pupae and sexual pupae produced at the same time. Likewise, the matrilines in polygynous colonies were differently present in worker pupae and male offspring. The effective number of matings by a queen was significantly lower in polygynous colonies (mean me = 1.68) than in monogynous colonies (means 2.06–2.61). The results give support to the hypotheses that polyandry and polygyny are alternative breeding strategies and that reproductive competition can lead to different representation of patrilines and matrilines among the sexual and worker broods.

蚁群内存在多只生殖个体时，会改变间接适合度收益与生殖竞争间的平衡。本研究针对三个科学问题展开检验：其一，蚁后的交配次数（多雄交配（polyandry））是否与蚁群内生殖蚁后的数量（多雌繁殖（polygyny））呈负相关；其二，父系谱系（patrilines）与母系谱系（matrilines）对有性子代和工蚁子代的贡献是否存在差异；其三，蚁群整体是否存在生殖偏倚（reproductive skew）。
为达成上述研究目标，我们对三个种群的血红林蚁（Formica sanguinea）的工蚁及有性生殖子代进行了基因分型。绝大多数受试蚁群为单雌繁殖型，但其中8个（占总样本的11%）为具有紧密亲缘关系生殖蚁后的多雌繁殖型。单雌繁殖蚁群中的绝大多数蚁后（86%）曾与多只雄蚁交配。有效父权数显著低于蚁后实际的交配雄蚁数量，且父权偏倚水平显著。
此外，在部分单雌繁殖蚁群中，同一批次产生的工蚁蛹与有性生殖蛹内的不同父系谱系占比存在差异。同理，多雌繁殖蚁群的母系谱系在工蚁蛹与雄性子代中的占比同样存在不同。多雌繁殖蚁群中蚁后的有效交配次数（平均值me=1.68）显著低于单雌繁殖蚁群（平均值为2.06~2.61）。
本研究结果支持以下假说：多雄交配与多雌繁殖属于两类替代性繁殖策略，且生殖竞争可导致父系与母系谱系在有性子代与工蚁子代中的占比出现分化。