Pleometrosis

This behavior is of significant interest to scientists particularly in ants and termites because nest formation often happens between queens that are unrelated, ruling out the argument of inclusive fitness as the driving force of pleometrosis.

[4] However, if she and multiple queens form a colony through pleometrosis they can produce a larger worker force of ants faster and get to a mature reproductive stage of colony growth faster, thus decreasing the chances of death due to inter-colony competition.

[2] It has been observed that ants which form pleometrotic colonies engage in less foraging behavior, thus lowering their chance of predation.

The queens that normally come out as dominant in pleometrotic colonies lay more eggs, have well-developed ovaries, and do not engage in foraging behavior.

[5] The benefits of pleometrosis is certain situations outweigh the costs for queens, regardless of the intra-colony competition it causes.

[2] Azteca ants form colonies in the internodes of Cecropia trees which are native to Mexico and South America.

Queens form colonies by burrowing into the inter node of the tree and then sealing off the entrance hole with parenchyma cells, after which they begin to lay eggs to produce the first brood.

However, the social interactions between queens in a pleometrotic colony differ depending on the species of Azteca.

[2] However in species of A. constructor which are less aggressive, once the worker ants leave the inter node to take control of the tree's resources, multiple queens remain cooperative with each other for up to a year.

Mixed species pleometrosis is rare but helps to support the fact that the majority of social insects who form pleometrotic colonies do not do so for kin selection-related benefits, but to be able to out-compete other colonies in the early stages of development.