Ilka Kureck

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Dipl. biol. Ilka Kureck

Behavioral Ecology
Department Biologie II
Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich
Großhaderner Str. 2
82152 Martinsried
Germany

email: kureck@bio.lmu.de

My PhD thesis

Intracolonial conflicts in an ant with alternative reproductive tactics

The neotropical ant Hypoponera opacior exhibits alternative reproductive tactics in queens and males. The timing of reproductive events is closely linked to annual fluctuations in rainfall. It could be shown in Arizona that winged males and females conduct mating flights during the summer monsoon followed by independent nest foundations by dealate queens. Yet wingless reproductives emerge in August, mate within the mother nest and thereafter wingless queens start new colonies by budding. During this time several conflicts between individuals arise in the colonies. Sex allocation ratios are consistently more male-biased in August. Hence local resource competition among wingless queens over the help of workers is more severe than local mate competition. However males compete for matings and show a mate guarding behaviour. There also seems to be a conflict between female larvae and workers over caste determination. These intracolonial conflicts will be studied with behavioural experiments, chemical and genetical analyses.