Morphological Caste Differences in the Australian Swarm-founding Wasp, Ropalidia romandi cabeti (Hymenoptera : Vespidae)

概要

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In the Australian swarm-founding wasp Ropalidia romandi cabeti, all females dissected (900 individuals from 3 colonies) had 3 pairs of ovarioles. But, according to ovarian types and insemination, they were classified into queens, intermediates and workers. Colonies 1 and 2 from Brisbane had the 3 types of females, while colony 3 from Atherton lacked the intermediate form. Percentages of queens in the samples varied from 0.7% in Colony 1, through 3.7% in Colony 2 to 49.7% in Colony 3. Estimated numbers of queens of Colonies 1, 2 and 3 were 13, 100 and 2500, respectively, probably reflecting the stage of colonial development. Statistic analyses based on measurements of 23 body characters showed that queens were larger than workers and intermediates. Intermediates were morphologically more similar to workers than to queens. Canonical discriminant analyses revealed that queens, intermediates and workers were morphometrically separated in varying degrees by colonies.
日本昆虫学会の論文
2000-03-25