I’m going to study the executions of young queens within polygynous (multiple queens) nests. My predictions are: When there are old queens in the nest, the workers will kill more young queens than in the nest without old queens. Workers start killing after a young queen has dropped her wings as an indicator of staying in the nest to reproduce. Young queens survive longer without workers than with them.
I’m not so experienced with ants yet, but keenly looking forward to learn more in the summer. I have been very interested in altruism as a phenomenon though from the beginning of my studies. Everything in biology interests me quite a bit and since I’m going to graduate as a teacher I hope in the future I can encourage new people to become inspired by the wonders of nature. Like my own teacher did at the time.
email: rosanna.lindgren@helsinki.fi