The findings, reported in the February 8 issue of Current Biology by researchers from the Universities of Regensburg, Germany, and Copenhagen, Denmark, show that queens of the social ant Cardiocondyla obscurior actually benefit from mating by gaining increased lifespan and reproductive success, living longer irrespective of whether males could transfer viable sperm or had been sterilized prior to mating. It remains unknown how mating increases the longevity of the females.
Sexual cooperation, rather than sexual conflict, is promoted by the life history of social insects; whereas most insect females undergo repeated phases of mating and reproduction throughout their lifetime, ant queens in social species mate only during a short period early in life and store and use the sperm of their mate for the rest of their lives. Sexual offspring are only produced after several months or years of colony growth, during which a sterile worker force is built up in the population. The fact that mates bond so early reduces the conflict between mating partners because both sexes benefit from the queen experiencing a long reproductive phase after the colony reaches sexual maturity.
Alexandra Schrempf, Jürgen Heinze, and Sylvia Cremer: "Sexual Cooperation: Mating Increases Longevity in Ant Queens"
The members of the research team include Alexandra Schrempf and Jürgen Heinze of Universitat Regensburg; and Sylvia Cremer of Universitat Regensburg and University of Copenhagen. The study received financial contributions from the German Science Foundation (DFG), the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation (Feodor Lynen postdoctoral grant to S.C.), and the European Union (Marie Curie Individual Fellowship to S.C.).
Publishing in Current Biology, Volume 15, Number 3, February 8, 2005, pages 267–270. http://www.current-biology.com
Journal
Current Biology