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The cooperation between genetically-unrelated individuals is explained by

following 3 hypotheses.

Hypothesis Explanation

Reciprocity I help that guy, because he will help me in

turn.
Benefit of by
Benefit occurs as the by-product of selfish
product
behavior.
Compulsion Give reward to cooperators,
and/or punishment to free riders.

Mechanism underlying the cooperation

between genetically-unrelated ant queens The cooperation between genetically-related individuals is explained by kin selection.

Kin selection Help individual possessing the same

gene.

However, the mechanism underlying the cooperation is poorly

understood, especially in invertebrates.

Pleometrosis
In certain social insects, multiple queens start their nests Spiny ant（Polyrhachis moesta）
cooperatively.
In some cases, the queens are aggressive toward each other,
providing ideal opportunity for studying cooperation. Nest in cavity in dead plant
Max colony size 500.
Founding colony Once founded

Cooperative Aggressive
Study subject: to understand mechanism of cooperation between
Food exchange between queens
ant queens. （http://www.ishidashiki.sakura.ne.jp/mushi/
hachi/kobetsu/chikusitogeari.html）

Queens in spiny ant nest Relatedness between founding queens

b/w unrelated

Relatedness by DNA finger printing

Number of queens in foundress
The relatedness between founding
Cooperation
The ultimate cause of cooperation is well studied for years.
nests follow poisson distribution. b/w founding queens Among nestmates

Founding queens are

Founding queens voluntarily gather
not genetically related.
and start nests. A single queen
remains in established nest.
queens are similar to those between
unrelated individuals. （Sasaki et al., 1996 Insect. Soc）
（Sasaki et al., 1996 Insect. Soc）
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W: worker

F: founding
C: colony
I: incipient

Large letter: nestmate

Small letter: non-nestmate
Observe for 3 min
Record
aggression as agonistic behavior trophallaxis as
cooperative behavior in various kinds of pair.
Founding queens are cooperative. Colony queens are
Queens behavior
Trophallaxis Aggression
aggressive. （Sasaki et al., 2005 Insect. Soc）

Behavioral assay 3.5cm

Q: queen

Mechanism underlying cooperation

（Koyama et al., 2015 Bio. Lett）

Founding queen
Colony queen

Cooperative Non-cooperative

To reveal the mechanism underlying cooperation,

brain biogenic amine in founding and colony queen are measured
Results：brain biogenic amine

Brain biogenic amine after octopamine treatment

Octopamine treatment increased brain octopamine,

which reduces cooperation

（Koyama et al., 2015 Bio. Lett）

Behavior of octopamine treated queen

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Discussion and conclusion

• Founding queens of spiny ant voluntarily gather in nest cavity, and cooperatively start nests.
• Founding queens are cooperative each other, but colony queens are not.
• The cooperation between founding queens are controlled by brain octopamine.
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