Thursday, October 22, 2009
Queens and workers
Based on the Dawkins reading, the conflict between queens and workers is the queens want to create a 1:1 ratio of the same amount of male offspring that there is to female offspring. By the queen creating a 1:1 ratio it means that the workers are truely her slaves. The workers on the other hand what a 3:1 ratio, which favor sisters rather than brothers. Being a female this is the most efficient way to propagate your genes is to refain from breeding yourself and having your mother provide you with reproductive sisters and brothers. It was found in a study of ants that the workers win the conflict because they have more control. They are the guardians of the nursery where the queen just has control over her body. There is however an exception where the queen takes on salve-making workers, they think that they are achieving their desired 3:1 bias but really the queen is winning.
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Note that the 1:1 and 3:1 ratios described by Dawkins are of "reproductives," meaning queens and drones, not just sister-worker and drones. I got confused trying to translate that into practice, where we encouter hives or ant nests with mostly workers, not queens. Any ideas?
ReplyDeleteI think most of us disregarded the fact that the ratios are dependent on how related the workers are to the queen. Aside from that i agree with your post :)
ReplyDeleteI agree with your post as well. I do believe too that the queen is winning. I completely disregarded the ratios but now it makes a lot more sense.
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