Comparative Social Biology of Sponge-Dwelling Snapping Shrimp (Synalpheus)

海绵捕虾的比较社会生物学J.埃米特·达菲海洋科学学院威廉和玛丽学院的Eusociality，其特点是合作的殖民地，其中大多数成员牺牲个人繁殖，长期以来一直提出了一个基本的行为和进化生态学的悖论。 根据汉密尔顿法则，社会行为可以被理解为通过相互作用者的遗传相关性来介导的环境所施加的挑战的解决方案。 因此，对社会进化的充分理解需要对群体成员之间的遗传关系、对种群的基本生态约束以及评估它们相互作用的进化后果的一些手段进行说明。 该建议采用互补的遗传，行为和比较的方法来评估亲属结构和社会生物学之间的相互作用，以及它的一些宏观进化的后果，在促进社会进化的物种丰富和社会多样性的海绵居住虾（Synalpheus），一个罕见的动物群体，其中真社会性已多次出现在密切相关的物种。 该项目有两个主要目标：（1）评估繁殖系统的影响，以及群体的遗传结构，对两个独立进化的，人口统计学上不同的真社会性虾种Synalpheus regalis和S.查塞 这将通过在8个微卫星位点对每个物种的野外采集的菌落中的个体进行基因分型，并在实验室中对圈养菌落中个体之间的冲突与合作水平进行实验评估来实现。 本研究将描述群体内个体之间的亲缘关系、侵略优势、交配成功和亲子关系的分布，以及群体内与群体间的亲缘关系。 (2)这些社会动态的长期进化后果将接近在一个比较框架内，利用Synalpheus物种之间的社会多样性，最近完成的海绵居住的分支系统发育重建的基础上。 系统发育独立的对比将测试协会，预测社会昆虫的理论和实证研究，在殖民地的大小，生殖偏斜，种姓分化。 这项研究将提供一个新的窗口的起源，适应性的意义，和macroevolutionary后果的eusociality在一个独特的，社会多样性的非昆虫无脊椎动物的分支，并将有助于评估的一般性，在广泛的分类学水平的理论进化的先进的动物社会的基础上，主要是从社会昆虫的数据。

COMPARATIVE SOCIOBIOLOGY OF SPONGE-DWELLING SNAPPING SHRIMPSJ. Emmett DuffySchool of Marine ScienceThe College of William and Mary Eusociality, characterized by cooperative colonies in which most members sacrifice individual reproduction, has long presented a fundamental paradox for behavioral and evolutionary ecology. According to Hamilton's rule, social behaviors can be understood as solutions to challenges imposed by the environment mediated through the genetic relatedness of interactants. A full understanding of social evolution thus entails an accounting of the genetic relationships among group members, the basic ecological constraints on populations, and some means of assessing the evolutionary consequences of their interplay. This proposal employs complementary genetic, behavioral, and comparative approaches to assess the interplay between kin structure and social biology, and some of its macroevolutionary consequences, in fostering social evolution in the species-rich and socially diverse sponge-dwelling shrimps (Synalpheus), one of the rare animal groups in which eusociality has arisen repeatedly among closely related species. The project has two principal objectives:(1) Assess the influence of breeding system, and consequent genetic structure of colonies, on behavioral dynamics and the maintenance of extreme reproductive skew in two independently evolved, and demographically divergent, eusocial shrimp species Synalpheus regalis and S. chacei. This will be accomplished by genotyping individuals from field-collected colonies of each species at eight microsatellite loci, and experimentally assessing levels of conflict and cooperation among individuals in captive colonies in the laboratory. This research will characterize the distributions of relatedness, aggressive dominance, mating success, and parentage among individuals within colonies, and of relatedness within vs. among colonies. (2) The longer-term evolutionary consequences of these social dynamics will be approached in a comparative framework by exploiting the social diversity among species of Synalpheus, building on the recently completed phylogenetic reconstruction of the sponge-dwelling clade. Phylogenetically independent contrasts will test the association, predicted by theory and empirical studies of social insects, among colony size, reproductive skew, and caste differentiation. This research will provide a new window on the origin, adaptive significance, and macroevolutionary consequences of eusociality in a unique, socially diverse clade of non-insect invertebrates, and will contribute to evaluating the generality at a broad taxonomic level of theories for the evolution of advanced animal societies based primarily on data from social insects.