title: Ethological and physiological changes occuring in workers of Myrmica rubra L. maintained without queens.
abstract: Our research on queens of Myrmica rubra L. leads us to consider whether workers, having lived with their queens during the first months of their life, can remember the information acquired even if later deprived of queens or whether they need frequent contacts with their queens in order to remember those queens' characteristics. It appeared that workers one or two years old and maintained without queens during 2 to 5 months, always recognized those queens when newly encountering them. These experiments enabled us to reveal an unknown phenomenon. A few weeks after the queens were removed from experimental nests, the workers' aggregative reaction around those queens appeared to decrease, then, 2 to 4 weeks later, to reach again a normal level. These ethological variations occured together with physiological changes affecting the workers. At first, nearly all the workers presented an ovary development, then, a few which stayed inside the nest appeared to possess yet more developed ovaries, while the workers going readily out of the nest presented only weak or no ovary activity. This social regulation probably contributed to the survival of the society.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Biologie animale et cellulaire, Faculté des Sciences, Université libre de Bruxelles, 50, A.F. Roosevelt, 1050 Bruxelles, Belgium.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: M-C