Naked mole-rats are eusocial mammals that live in hierarchies consisting of one breeding female, one to three male consorts and their reproductively suppressed offspring. A ‘disperser morph’ subcaste has been suggested with a subset of nonbreeders exhibiting motivation to leave their natal colony and mate with unfamiliar conspecifics. To test the hypotheses that intrinsic colony variables (e.g. population density, sex ratio, queen temperament) influence the dispersal phenotype, and that males and females differ in responsiveness to these variables, we evaluated dispersal behaviour in 17 laboratory colonies. Queen aggression was associated with the number of female, but not male, dispersers, although dispersers were not themselves targets of queen aggression. Female dispersers were more aggressive than their nondispersing sisters, although still less aggressive than queens overall. Following outpairing with an unfamiliar opposite-sex animal, dispersers and nondispersers produced litters at similar rates, demonstrating that motivation to leave the colony, and not anticipatory reproductive maturation, is the key to successful dispersal. Collectively, these data suggest that aggressive naked mole-rat queens motivate dispersal in their daughters and that female dispersers show traits consistent with successful queens (e.g. aggression).

中文翻译：

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攻击性和驱散真社会性裸鼹鼠的动机，Heterocephalus glaber

裸鼹鼠是一种社会性哺乳动物，它们生活在由一只繁殖雌性、一到三只雄性配偶及其生殖受抑制的后代组成的等级制度中。已经提出了一个“分散变种”亚种姓，非繁殖者的一个子集表现出离开他们出生的殖民地并与不熟悉的同种物种交配的动机。为了检验固有菌落变量（例如种群密度、性别比例、蜂后气质）影响扩散表型以及雄性和雌性对这些变量的反应不同的假设，我们评估了 17 个实验室菌落的扩散行为。蜂王的侵略与雌性而非雄性驱散者的数量有关，尽管散布者本身并不是蜂后侵略的目标。女性驱散者比不驱散的姐妹更具攻击性，虽然总体上还是不如皇后那么好斗。在与不熟悉的异性动物配对后，散布者和非散布者以相似的速度产生窝，这表明离开群体的动机，而不是预期的生殖成熟，是成功散布的关键。总的来说，这些数据表明，攻击性的裸鼹鼠蚁后会促使它们的女儿进行驱散，而雌性驱散蚁表现出与成功蚁后一致的特征（例如侵略性）。