Relatedness and Altruism in Neotropical Wasps

群居昆虫提供了自然界最明显的利他主义行为的例子，在这种行为中，一些个体为了他人的利益而牺牲自己的生存和繁殖。因此，利他主义进化论强调了社会昆虫。亲缘选择理论预测，社会昆虫群体应该是近亲群体，这通常是正确的。然而，当每个蜂群有许多产卵女王时，平均亲缘关系预计会相当低。那么，维持工人的利他主义就变得更成问题了，除非工人被一种专门的形态锁定在自己的角色中。从这个角度来看，最挑战当前关于工蚁行为维持的理解的社会昆虫是新热带地区的蜂群创始黄蜂，因为它们将多蜂王的习性与工蜂和蜂王之间很少或根本没有形态上的区别结合在一起。对这一群体的研究将回答两个关键问题。首先，在这些黄蜂中，群居伴侣之间的关联度有多低？其次，除了女王数量之外，还有什么因素会影响关联度，特别是在关联度高于预期的情况下？如果关联度很低，那么这些研究将表明，当前的社会性进化理论可能需要修改。如果关联度不低，那么多个女王的存在带来的问题就会得到解决。进一步调查为什么关联度并不低，将会发现帮助维持这一群体中利他主义行为的力量。

Social insects provide nature's most conspicuous example of altruistic behavior, in which some individuals sacrifice their survival and reproduction for the benefit of others. Theories of the evolution of altruism have therefore emphasized social insects. The theory of kin selection predicts that social insect colonies should be groups of close relatives, and this is usually true. However, when there are many egg-laying queens per colony, average relatedness is expected to be quite low. The maintenance of worker altruism then becomes more problematic, unless workers are locked into their role by a specialized morphology. From this perspective, the social insects that most challenge current understanding of the maintenance of worker behavior are the swarm-founding wasps of the neo-tropics, because they combine the multiple-queen habit with little or no morphological differentiation between workers and queens. Study of this group will answer two vital questions. First, how low is relatedness among colony-mates in these wasps? Second, what factors other than queen number influence relatedness, especially in cases where relatedness is higher than expected? If relatedness is very low, then these studies will show that current theories of the evolution of sociality may need revision. If relatedness is not low, then the problem posed by the presence of multiple queens will be solved. Further investigations into why relatedness is not low will uncover the forces that help to maintain altruistic behavior in this group.