A trophic egg is an egg which is not laid for reproduction but for nutrition. Though not discernible with the naked eye, trophic and non-trophic eggs are morphologically distinct and have different ovarian characteristics (such as number of germ cells). Trophic eggs are generally not viable and do not undergo embryonic development.
Because ants are social insects, it could perceivably be detrimental if workers retained reproductive abilities and selfishly engaged in reproduction as opposed to collective functions, such as nest maintenance and foraging.
It is widely thought that the reproductive constraints on worker ants which simultaneously reduces or eliminates the workers' ability to produce viable eggs for reproduction, whilst preserving their ability to produce trophic eggs for nutrition, may have been the basis for the evolutionary retention of worker ovaries in the majority of ant species.
As a result of reproductive constraints, workers cannot mate and have lost the spermatheca, so can only produce unfertilised eggs that develop either into males or are simply trophic eggs for nutrition.
This follows Hamilton's rule on kin selection (evolutionary strategy that favours the reproductive success of an organism's relatives, at a cost to their own).
Trophic egg production is particularly critical for young, newly mated, queens because it provides food to the fledgeling colony.
Image Copyright© Anthony Camouse
Tags: Morphology & Physiology | Evolution
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