Abstract
We manipulated availability of food and nesting sites in one population of the forest ant Myrmica punctiventris. The manipulations produced significant changes in relatedness structure, reproductive allocation, and response to hierarchical selection. Food availability appeared to have a consistently stronger influence on these aspects of social organization than did availability of nesting sites. We interpret our experimental results in light of observed differences between populations, and discuss implications for kin selection dynamics.
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Received: 30 July 1998 / Accepted after revision: 31 October 1998
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Herbers, J., Banschbach, V. Plasticity of social organization in a forest ant species. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 45, 451–465 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/s002650050584
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s002650050584