RUI: Nourishment, Trophallaxis and Caste in Primitively Social Wasps

RUI：原始群居黄蜂的营养、寄主和种姓

• 批准号: 8805971
• 负责人: James Hunt
• 金额: $ 7.2万
• 依托单位: University of Missouri-Saint Louis
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1988
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1988-08-01 至 1991-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=8805971&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RUI; Nourishment; Trophallaxis; Caste; Primitively

Is evolution dictated primarily by genetic factors or primarily by environmental factors? Increasing emphasis in recent years has been placed on extrinsic factors as significantly affecting evolutionary events and pathways. Another major interest area is the origin and maintenance of helping behavior as opposed to selfish behavior. A strict Darwinian interpretation of natural selection would be that helping behavior should be rare outside of parent.offspring and mate interactions, yet social behavior is widespread in mammals and is particularly prominent in humans, and it also occurs in some birds and insects. Social insects represent a valuable model system with which to test and evaluate certain hypotheses that are central to these issues in contemporary biology. Social insects can be manipulated experimentally to address questions with an ease and economy unapproached in social birds, mammals, or humans. The proposed research utilizes primitively social wasps ("paper wasps"), reared in the laboratory according to strict experimental protocols, to attempt to resolve the developmental basis of worker (helping) behavior in them. The work will at the same time address the relative contribution of environmental factors (nourishment, in particular) versus hypothesized intrinsic, genetic factors in the evolution of worker behavior. Most recent research in the field has emphasized genetic factors, whereas the present study will emphasize extrinsic factors. Results of the research will thus bear directly on two areas of central interest in biology today. In addition to addressing basic hypotheses in biology, the specific knowledge gained about wasp nourishment and development may be applicable to the managed rearing of paper wasps, which have high potential as biological control agents where caterpillars (e.g., Cotton bollworm, Tomato budworm, Cabbage looper, etc.) are plant pests, and chemical control of the caterpillars is either unfeasible or undesirable.

进化主要是由遗传因素决定还是主要由环境因素决定？ 近年来，人们越来越重视外在因素对进化事件和途径的显着影响。 另一个主要兴趣领域是帮助行为（而不是自私行为）的起源和维持。 达尔文对自然选择的严格解释是，在父母、后代和配偶相互作用之外，助人行为应该很少见，但社会行为在哺乳动物中广泛存在，在人类中尤为突出，而且也发生在一些鸟类和昆虫中。 社会性昆虫代表了一个有价值的模型系统，可以用来测试和评估对当代生物学中这些问题至关重要的某些假设。 可以通过实验操纵社会性昆虫，以轻松、经济地解决社会性鸟类、哺乳动物或人类所无法企及的问题。 拟议的研究利用原始社会黄蜂（“纸黄蜂”），根据严格的实验方案在实验室中饲养，试图解决它们的工人（帮助）行为的发展基础。 这项工作将同时解决环境因素（特别是营养）与假设的内在遗传因素在工人行为进化中的相对贡献。 该领域的最新研究强调遗传因素，而本研究将强调外在因素。 因此，这项研究的结果将直接影响当今生物学的两个核心兴趣领域。 除了解决生物学中的基本假设外，获得的有关黄蜂营养和发育的具体知识可能适用于造纸黄蜂的管理饲养，造纸黄蜂具有作为生物防治剂的巨大潜力，其中毛毛虫（例如棉铃虫、番茄芽虫、卷心菜尺蠖等）是植物害虫，而对毛毛虫的化学控制要么不可行，要么不受欢迎。