ABSTRACT
Dominance hierarchies and their reproductive consequences have been investigated in a variety of wasps and bees characterized by varying levels of sociality. Pheromonal dominance in the form of functional monogyny in polygynous species is well known throughout the social insects. Behavioral dominance in highly eusocial ants has been relatively little studied by comparison. The change in dominance status during reunions was accompanied by alterations in queen-worker interactions. Additional field results support the laboratory evidence that dominance antagonism and the separation of pleometrotic pairs result in oligogynous colonies. Pairs of cofounding queens in pleometrotic associations of the Australian meat ant, Iridomyrmex purpureus, engage in striking antagonistic behavior, in the form of ritualized antennation bouts. Detailed observations of antennation behavior among a pair of individually-marked queens indicate that a reproductive rank order results, in which the dominant queen inhibits egg-laying by the subordinate.
