The ecology and evolution of sociality in carpenter bees and sweat bees

进化生物学中最重要的谜题之一与利他主义的进化有关，利他主义是一种个体牺牲自己的繁殖来帮助其他个体繁殖的行为。当利他主义者留给后代的基因比他们所帮助的个体少时，利他行为背后的基因是如何在群体中传播的？通常，这个难题是通过调用亲属选择来解决的，在这种选择中，利他主义的个体牺牲了个人的繁殖，但通过养育共享基因的近亲来弥补这一点。然而，对原始社会蜜蜂的实证研究提供了证据，证明雌性有可能表现得像利他主义者或生育自己的后代，而从属的雌性往往通过利他行为传递较少的基因，而不是生育自己的后代。这表明亲缘选择并不能完全解释利他行为。我的研究计划将集中在木蜂（Xylocopa和Ceratina）和汗蜂（Lasioglossum）社会行为的多个方面，其中潜在的帮助者有繁殖自己的潜力；当它们表现出利他主义时，我们就可以研究促进这种行为的生态和进化条件。我们的研究将结合现场和实验室技术，包括利用遗传标记追踪蜂群内的母性模式。在最广泛的层面上，详细的行为学、人口学和生态学实地研究将揭示个体蜜蜂选择利他或自私行为的条件，以及这些决定对群体社会组织的影响。

One of the most important puzzles in evolutionary biology concerns the evolution of altruism, a behaviour in which an individual sacrifices its own reproduction in order to help other individuals reproduce. How do the genes underlying altruistic behaviour spread through populations when altruists leave fewer genes to subsequent generations than do the individuals that they help? Usually this conundrum is solved by invoking kin selection, in which altruistic individuals sacrifice personal reproduction, but more than make up for it by raising close relatives which share their genes. However, empirical studies of primitively social bees, those in which females have the potential to behave as altruists or to produce their own offspring, provide evidence that subordinate females frequently pass on fewer genes by behaving altruistically than they would have if they produced their own brood. This suggests that kin selection does not provide a complete explanation for altruistic behaviour. My research proposal will focus on multiple aspects of the social behaviour of carpenter bees (Xylocopa and Ceratina) and sweat bees (Lasioglossum), in which potential helpers have the potential to breed themselves; when they behave as altruists we can then examine the ecological and evolutionary conditions that promote this behaviour. Our research will incorporate field and laboratory techniques, including tracing patterns of maternity within bee colonies using genetic markers. At the broadest level, detailed field studies of behaviour, demography and ecology will uncover the conditions under which individual bees choose to behave altruistically or selfishly, as well as the consequences of these decisions for colony social organisation.