RUI: Nourishment, Trophallaxis and Caste in Primitively Social Wasps

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，人们越来越重视对进化事件和进化路径有重大影响的外部因素。另一个主要感兴趣的领域是帮助行为的起源和维持，而不是自私行为。达尔文对自然选择的严格解释是，在父母、后代和配偶之间的互动之外，帮助行为应该是罕见的，然而社交行为在哺乳动物中很普遍，在人类中尤为突出，它也出现在一些鸟类和昆虫中。群居昆虫代表了一个有价值的模型系统，用来测试和评估某些假说，这些假说是当代生物学中这些问题的核心。群居昆虫可以被实验地操纵来解决问题，这在群居鸟类、哺乳动物或人类中是无法企及的。这项拟议的研究利用在实验室中按照严格的实验方案饲养的原始群居黄蜂(纸黄蜂)，试图解决它们中工人(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演变中的相对贡献。该领域最新的研究强调了遗传因素，而目前的研究将强调外部因素。因此，研究结果将直接关系到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，所获得的关于黄蜂营养和发育的专门知识可能适用于纸黄蜂的管理饲养，纸黄蜂在毛虫(如棉铃虫、番茄芽孢子虫、卷心菜环毛虫等)中具有很高的生物防治潜力。都是植物害虫，对毛虫进行化学防治要么不可行，要么不受欢迎。

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.