Physogastria is the proliferation (bloating) of the abdomen in public insects and opistosomes in ticks associated with the processes of nutrition, an increase in the fat body, ovaries or other organs (but not due to the accumulation of food, as in honey ants ). Described by ticks this. Pyemotidae , many species of ants and termites , as well as termitophilous beetles (e.g., staphilins ).
Content
Description
Ants
Ants own many “world records”. For example, the number of ant colonies can be very high, up to 15 million individuals in one nest . One of the reasons for the size of the colonies is the ability of the female not to leave the nests and not to feed the larvae, but only to lay eggs. In monogynous species of ants, for example, a strong development of the ovaries is observed, as a result of which the female’s productivity increases significantly. Its fertility reaches tens and hundreds of thousands of eggs per week (compared with dozens of eggs in ordinary females of polygynous species). In this case, a sharp increase in the volume of the abdomen of the female occurs, it seems to swell due to hypertrophic ovaries.
In some species of ants, the physiogastria of the uterus is constant, in others, the abdomen of the uterus swells only during the period of intensive laying of eggs. Ovarian hypertrophy in socially parasitic inquilines, such as Anergates atratulus, develops after the host species penetrates the anthill, which allows combining the mobility of the settling female and high fecundity. The most pronounced physiogastria in females of tropical nomad ants and higher termites. Their physiogastric females cannot move independently and are completely dependent on workers. In the black garden and yellow earthen ants living in the forest zone of Russia, the uterus also becomes inactive and does not do anything except laying eggs and feeding [1] .
Bees
Many stingless bees (Meliponini) have physiogastric females, for example, such South American species as Paratrigona subnuda and Schwarziana quadripunctata [2] . Physogastria is also found in stingy bees Melipona bicolor , which are optionally polygynous, and they can have one or several physiogastric queens in one nest [3] .
Termites
In some termites, the physiogastric females increase to 10 cm or more in length. In the uterus of the species Macrotermes subhyalinus, eggs can make up to one third of the body weight of the uterus, and as a result, a 15-gram uterus can lay up to 30 eggs per minute [4] . Moreover, the process of proliferation of the abdomen and oviposition in physiogastric female termites occurs without cuticle shedding processes characteristic of other insects [5] .
Ticks
In ticks, the female physiogastria is observed during the period of feeding and development of offspring within the opistosome . So, ovoviviparous species of the genus Pyemotes (from the superfamily barn, or flour mites , Acaroidea ) give birth to adult offspring that develop inside the abdomen of physiogastric females that feed on insects.
Notes
- ↑ Kipyatkov V.E. The world of public insects. - L .: Publishing house of the Leningrad University. 1991.408 p. ISBN 5-288-00376-9
- ↑ Nogueira-Ferreira, FH; Silva-Matos, EV; Zucchi, R. Interaction and Behavior of Virgin and Physogastric Queens in Three Meliponini Species (Hymenoptera, Apidae) (Eng.) // Genetics and Molecular Research : journal. - 2009. - Vol. 8 , no. 2 . - P. 703–708 .
- ↑ Koedam, D., et al. “The Behavior Of Laying Workers And The Morphology And Viability Of Their Eggs In Melipona Bicolor Bicolor.” Physiological Entomology 26.3 (2001): 254–259. Academic Search Premier. Web 26 Sept. 2015.
- ↑ Wyss-Huber, M .; Lüscher, M. Protein synthesis in 'fat body' and ovary of the physogastric queen of Macrotermes subhyalinus (Eng.) // Journal of Insect Physiology: journal. - 1975 .-- 1 October ( vol. 21 , no. 10 ). - P. 1697-1704 . - DOI : 10.1016 / 0022-1910 (75) 90182-1 .
- ↑ Bordereau, Christian. Ultrastructure and Formation of the Physogastric Termite Queen Cuticle (English) // Tissue & Cell: journal. - 1982. - Vol. 14 , no. 2 . - P. 371-396 .
Literature
- Kipyatkov V.E. The world of public insects. - L .: Publishing house of the Leningrad University. 1991.408 p. ISBN 5-288-00376-9