Demographic Advantages of Eusociality

社会性昆虫一直是一个进化难题 生物学家。 他们进化出了工人阶级， 永远不要复制。 但是阻止繁殖的基因 在人群中变得普遍吗 答案是，工人 帮助繁殖的亲属，虽然他们不表达， 控制工蚁行为的基因，确实拥有并传播了它们 他们的后代。 理论与实证相结合 有证据表明，所提供的援助必须是相当大的： 工人必须普遍提高其生产能力， 亲戚们比他们自己减少的更多。 生殖 如何实现这种规模的繁殖效率 是拟议研究的主题，重点是 没有进化出种姓的群居昆虫 专业化。 数学模型将显示如何简单， 死亡率和生殖时间的合理模式可能导致 to these efficiency效率of scale规模. 对黄蜂的实地研究将 用于测试模型。 这项工作的结果将是一个 更好地理解为什么有些物种会参与利他主义 行为，以及为什么别人不这样做。 这些见解可能会导致 对利他主义进化背后的相似性的认识 在社会性昆虫和高等动物中。

The social insects have always posed an evolutionary puzzle to biologists. They have evolved worker castes which rarely or never reproduce. But how can genes that prevent reproduction ever become common in populations? The answer is that workers aid the reproduction of relatives who, though they do not express the genes for worker behavior, do possess them and transmit them to their offspring. A combination of theory and empirical evidence suggests that the aid given must be considerable: workers must generally increase the reproduction of their relatives by more than the amount that they decrease their own reproduction. How such reproductive efficiencies of scale can be achieved is the main theme of the proposed research, focusing on primitively social insects that have not evolved caste specializations. Mathematical models will show how simple and plausible patterns of mortality and reproductive timing can lead to these efficiencies of scale. Field studies of wasps will serve to test the models. The result of this work will be a better understanding of why some species engage in altruistic behavior and why others do not. These insights may lead to the recognition of similarities underlying the evolution of altruism in the social insects and higher animals.