Relatedness and Altruism in Neotropical Wasps

新热带黄蜂的相关性和利他主义

• 批准号: 9021514
• 负责人: David Queller
• 金额: $ 26.8万
• 依托单位: William Marsh Rice University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 1991
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1991-04-01 至 1995-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9021514&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Relatedness; Altruism; Neotropical; Wasps

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.

群居昆虫是自然界中 利他主义行为，其中一些人牺牲自己的 为了他人的利益而生存和繁衍。 理论 因此，利他主义的进化强调了社会性， 昆虫 亲属选择理论预测， 殖民地应该是近亲的群体，这通常是 真的 然而，当每个殖民地有许多产卵女王时， 平均关联度预计相当低。 维护 工人的利他主义就会变得更有问题，除非工人 被一种特殊的形态锁定在它们的角色中。 从 从这个角度来看，社会性昆虫最能挑战当前的 对维护工人行为的理解是 新热带地区的蜂群，因为它们结合了联合收割机， 多女王的习惯，很少或没有形态 工人和女王的区别。 对这一群体的研究将回答两个至关重要的问题。 第一、 在这些黄蜂中，群体成员之间的相关性有多低？ 第二，除了皇后号影响，还有哪些因素 相关性，特别是在相关性高于 预期的？ 如果相关性很低，那么这些研究将 表明当前社会性进化的理论可能需要 修订。 如果相关性不低，那么 多个皇后的存在将被解决。 进一步 调查为什么相关性不低将揭示 帮助维持这个群体中利他行为的力量。