POLYGYNY AND POLYDOMY IN THREE NORTH 
AMERICAN SPECIES OF THE ANT GENUS 
LEPTOTHORAX MAYR (HYMENOPTERA: FORMICIDAE) 1 
By 
Thomas M. Alloway, 2 Alfred Buschinger, 3 Mary Talbot, 4 
Robin Stuart, 2 and Cynthia Thomas 2 
General Introduction 
This paper deals with certain behavioral and ecological factors 
which may be relevant to the evolution and maintenance of social 
parasitism in ants. We will argue that some of the same factors 
which might predispose one species to evolve into a social parasite 
might make resistance to parasitism difficult for a closely related 
species. 
After their mating flight, the queens of most nonparasitic ant 
species found new colonies alone. A queen of such a species finds a 
suitable nesting place, excavates a small cavity, and seals herself 
inside. She then lays a clutch of eggs and feeds her first larvae a 
special “baby food” derived metabolically from the degeneration of 
her wing muscles and fat body. These larvae mature to become 
female workers which forage for food, enlarge the nest, feed the 
queen, and rear subsequent broods of workers and reproductives. 
Mature ant colonies usually occupy only one nest (monodomy). 
However, the number of queens in typical mature colonies varies. 
Colonies of some species never contain more than one functional 
queen (monogyny), while colonies of other species often have multi- 
ple queens (polygyny) (Buschinger 1974). 
However, the queens of all known obligatory slave-making, in- 
quiline, and temporary-parasite species found colonies non-inde- 
1. This research was supported by grants to Thomas Alloway from the Natural 
Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and to Alfred Buschinger 
from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. 
2. Erindale College, University of Toronto, Mississauga, Ontario, CANADA 
L5L 1C6. 
3. Fachbereich Biologie, Institut fur Zoologie, Technische Hochschule, 61 Darm- 
stadt, Schnittspahnstr. 3, Federal Republic of Germany. 
4. The Lindenwood Colleges, Saint Charles Missouri, U.S.A. 63301. 
Manuscript received by the editor August 5, 1982. 
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