The group of Dr. Satoshi Mizumoto, Ph.D. student, Toshihisa Yashiro, and Professor Kenji Matsuura of the Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University is the same as a normal male-female pair, with termites forming pairs with each other that do not lead to breeding. He discovered that he started nesting, and revealed that this action was a strategy for survival.
In nature, same-sex couples are found in a variety of species.However, the reason for such non-breeding behavior is a mystery, and was previously thought to be accidental due to the mistaken male and female.
Reticulitermes speratus, which is widely distributed in Japan, is usually nested by a pair of monogamous wives, but it has been reported that a pair of males may also nest.In addition, the research group predicts that it is unlikely to be a sexual misrecognition because the reaction when a male meets a male and when he meets a female is different, and it is intentional.When we started the survey, we found that single males rarely started nesting, while male-to-male pairs nest as fast as male-female pairs.In addition, pairs of males are less likely to be attacked by foreign enemies than single males, and it is possible that they are cooperating to improve their survival rate.It was also found that surviving male-to-male pairs hijack nests created by other male-female pairs.In this case, only one male of the former male male spare can breed with the female.
Finally, as a result of investigating whether the strategy of pairing with the same sex is more advantageous than the strategy of continuing to search for females, even if the probability of hijacking is low, the risk of predation when searching for females is high. When it was high, the result was that the same-sex pair had an advantage.Based on the above, the research group concludes that termites forming same-sex pairs are the "second best measure" to increase survival rates until breeding opportunities arise.
This time, we were able to clarify the significance of seemingly meaningless behavior, such as pairing between male termites, as a result of the successful combination of behavioral experiments, genetic experiments, and mathematical analysis. ..The results of this research were published in the scientific journal "Animal Behavior".
