Summary
Nests ofTapinoma minutum were collected and mapped from a wet sclerophyll forest in New South Wales during the spring, summer, and fall seasons. Queen number was variable, indicating the population is both facultatively polygynous and polydomous. Electrophoretic data from three polymorphic enzymes revealed that relatedness among workers conformed to the Hamiltonian expectation of 0.75. Colony boundaries were inferred from electrophoretic data synthesized with nest spatial locations. For this species colonies were composed of at most three nests; this simple pattern of polydomy suggests it has a recent origin in this population. The pattern of facultative polygyny may be linked to an apparent high rate of colony orphaning.
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Herbers, J.M. The population biology ofTapinoma minutum (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Australia. Ins. Soc 38, 195–204 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01240969
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01240969