The fecundity–longevity trade-off in a clonal eusocial insect: in isolation, subordinate workers match dominants in reproduction

Reproductive division of labor (DOL) is key to the ecological success of eusocial insects such as ants, termites, and honeybees, in which queens reproduce while workers perform non-reproductive tasks. DOL is often associated with a shift in the fecundity-longevity trade-off, with queens outliving non-reproductive workers. In most species, reproductive and non-reproductive individuals differ significantly (e.g., in ontogeny or morphology), which may contribute to this phenomenon. In contrast, in the ant Platythyrea punctata, females are clonally identical, and socially dominant workers produce female offspring from unfertilized eggs by thelytokous parthenogenesis. We investigated whether all workers, i.e., dominants and subordinates, reproduce when given the opportunity. We formed dyads of workers of the same age and allowed them to establish rank orders. We then investigated their reproductive performance in isolation. We found that nearly 88% of workers, regardless of social rank, acti..., , # The fecundity–longevity trade-off in a clonal eusocial insect: in isolation, subordinate workers match dominants in reproduction

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.vhhmgqp75](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.vhhmgqp75)

## GENERAL INFORMATION

A. Paper associated with this archive

Citation: Shit, P., J. Heinze, and A. Bernadou. The fecundity–longevity trade-off in a clonal eusocial insect: in isolation, subordinate workers match dominants in reproduction. American Naturalist.

B. Originators

Piuli Shit, Zoology/Evolutionary Biology, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany

Jürgen Heinze, Zoology/Evolutionary Biology, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany

Abel Bernadou, Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale, Centre de Biologie Intégrative, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, Toulouse, France

C. Contact information

Piuli Shit: [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])

Jürgen Heinze: [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail]-regen...,