Strong constraints to independent nesting in a facultatively social bee: quantifying the effects of enemies-at-the-nest
Strong constraints to independent nesting in a facultatively social bee: quantifying the effects of enemies-at-the-nest
复制标题
兼性社交蜜蜂独立筑巢的强约束：量化巢内敌人的影响
作者：
J. Zammit;K. Hogendoorn;M. Schwarz
翻译后摘要：独立筑巢的限制发挥了关键作用，在昆虫的社会进化的理解，但这种限制的来源和幅度知之甚少的许多关键类群。在异源蜜蜂中，已知单独筑巢的雌性成功育雏的比率较低，这促使选择合作筑巢。有人假设，这些限制是由于存在的敌人在巢中，如蚂蚁，但没有直接的联系已经证明这些敌人和殖民失败。我们建立了一个实验中，单独成立的巢澳大利亚allodeparismus蜜蜂，Exoneura nigrescens，无论是从非飞行的捕食者保护或不受保护，并比较由此产生的殖民地生存和育雏生产率。我们发现，受保护的殖民地有更高的生存率和独立筑巢的限制是极端的，平均每巢不到一个后代在育雏期结束。这意味着，合作筑巢是必不可少的，这个物种坚持在其栖息地。
Abstract.Constraints to independent nesting play a key role in the understanding of social evolution in insects, but the source and the magnitude of such constraints are poorly known for many key taxa. In allodapine bees it is known that solitary nesting females have low rates of successful brood rearing and that this drives selection for cooperative nesting. It has been hypothesized that these constraints are due to the presence of enemies-at-the-nest, such as ants, but no direct link has been demonstrated between such enemies and colony failure. We set up an experiment in which solitary founded nests of an Australian allodapine bee, Exoneura nigrescens, were either protected from non-flying predators or left unprotected, and compared the resulting colony survival and brood production rates. We found that protected colonies have much higher rates of survival and that the constraints to independent nesting are extreme, with a mean of less than one offspring per nest at the end of the brood rearing period. This means that cooperative nesting is essential for this species to persist in its habitat.