Effects of worker manipulation on the sex ratio of a Japanese ant species, Myrmecina nipponica

In order to test the effects of colony size and nutritional condition on the survivorship and sex ratio of ants, Myrmecina nipponica colonies were housed in a laboratory in colony sizes of 10 or 30 individuals and fed either daily or weekly. Under all conditions, most of the larvae successfully grew into adults, which suggests that survivorship was not significantly affected by either colony size or nutritional condition. However, the number of new queens was significantly higher in colonies that were fed daily. These results indicate that workers do not control the proportion of diploid and haploid broods by eliminating some larvae and that nutritional condition exerts a significant effect on sex ratio.