Market forces influence helping behaviour in cooperatively breeding paper wasps.
Market forces influence helping behaviour in cooperatively breeding paper wasps.
复制标题
DOI：
10.1038/ncomms13750
复制
发表时间：
2017-01-24
影响因子：
16.6
通讯作者：
Field J
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Grinsted L;Field J
生物市场理论对于理解动物社会中的助人行为可能是有用的。它预测，对贸易伙伴的竞争将影响所交换商品的价值。它在合作育种者中获得了经验支持，下属帮助占主导地位的育种者以换取群体成员资格，但到目前为止没有考虑一个关键方面：外部选择。我们在纸黄蜂中找到了生物市场的支持，Polistes dominula。我们首先表明，女性有一个合作伙伴的选择。第二，通过在野外操纵整个亚群，我们为下属增加了外部选择的供应，释放了合适的筑巢地点，并提供了额外的筑巢伙伴。我们预测，通过加强对帮助的竞争，我们的操纵将迫使主导者接受更低的价格作为集团成员。正如预期的那样，在我们的治疗后，下属减少了他们的觅食努力。我们的结论是，要准确地预测所提供的帮助，社会单位不能孤立地看待：周边市场也必须考虑。在合作繁殖的物种中，下级帮助抚养优势繁殖者的后代，以换取与群体成员资格相关的利益。在这里，格林斯特德和菲尔德表明，下级纸黄蜂提供的帮助量取决于替代筑巢选择的可用性，正如生物市场理论所预测的那样。
Biological market theory is potentially useful for understanding helping behaviour in animal societies. It predicts that competition for trading partners will affect the value of commodities exchanged. It has gained empirical support in cooperative breeders, where subordinates help dominant breeders in exchange for group membership, but so far without considering one crucial aspect: outside options. We find support for a biological market in paper wasps, Polistes dominula. We first show that females have a choice of cooperative partners. Second, by manipulating entire subpopulations in the field, we increase the supply of outside options for subordinates, freeing up suitable nesting spots and providing additional nesting partners. We predicted that by intensifying competition for help, our manipulation would force dominants to accept a lower price for group membership. As expected, subordinates reduce their foraging effort following our treatments. We conclude that to accurately predict the amount of help provided, social units cannot be viewed in isolation: the surrounding market must also be considered. In cooperatively breeding species, subordinates help to raise the dominant breeders' offspring in return for benefits associated with group membership. Here, Grinsted and Field show that the amount of help provided by subordinate paper wasps depends on the availability of alternative nesting options, as predicted by biological market theory.