BIOL10001 Lecture 25: BIOL10001 Lecture 25 Notes
20 Sep 2018
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Males one per nest all sterile females includes all soldiers very large numbers (100s - 10000s) soldiers are not males winged never a functional part of the colony mate and die. 7 families in the world, 5 families in australia. 2300 species in the world, 348 in australia (15%) Nests develop into sterile workers and soldiers if queen is absent or nest is small, some larvae become queens sterility driven by chemical signals from the queen. Individuals co-operate to stitch leaves together to build a nest. Can be very large colonies therefore large nests. Some ants nest in the chambers inside the plant. Some feed on oil rich elaiosomes from acacias. Other ants have a mutualistic relationships with butter ies have a role in seed dispersal. Lycaenid butter y their larvae on acacia foliage (high in nitrogen) tended and defended by ants secretions from the caterpillars contain sugars and amino acids that are nitrogen rich which the ants can harvest.
