Paternity, reproduction and conflict in vespine wasps: a model system for testing kin selection predictions

By Kevin R. Foster, Francis L. W. Ratnieks. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 2001

127 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract. The Vespinae wasps (Vespa, Provespa, Dolichovespula, and Vespula) are an excellent group for testing kin selection predictions. There is considerable variation in kin structure and conflict resolution in a group of known phylogeny where all species have a similar basic biology: morphologically distinct queens and workers, and annual nests headed by a single queen. Vespine kin structure can be described by a single variable "effective paternity", which is defined by queen mating frequency and sperm use. Low effective paternity, which causes high worker relatedness, is basal in the group (Vespa, Dolichovespula), with high paternity (ca >2) restricted to Vespula whose queens mate more and use sperm more equally. Paternity variation correlates well with observed patterns of reproduction and conflict. As predicted by theory, male production by workers is common in Dolichovespula but not in Vespula where worker policing occurs (Vespula vulgaris). The theory is also supported by intercolony variation in Dolichovespula, with facultative worker policing (Dolichovespula saxonica) and sex allocation biasing by workers (D. arenaria) occurring in response to paternity. In addition, queen loss in reproductive colonies of nine species is negatively correlated with paternity, in line with the prediction that matricide is only expected at low paternity. However, paternity does not explain the reproductive characteristics of Vespa crabro. Although paternity in V. crabro is only 1.1, the same as the mean in six Dolichovespula species, its reproductive behaviour is different from Dolichovespula. More like Vespula, V. crabro has worker policing, workers that rarely have active ovaries, and little queen loss in reproductive-phase colonies.

Subfields: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Genetics, Insect Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7e71c1f41e7207aa1edd2f85abdc28dba259a303

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Citations in the corpus

Life histories and parasite pressure across the major groups of social insects. (2005, background): “Greene, A. (1991) Dolichovespula and Vespula.”
Worker policing and worker reproduction in Apis cerana (2001, background): “In the western honey-bee, Apis mellifera (Ratnieks and Visscher 1989), the dwarf honey-bee, A. florea (Halling et al. 2001), and the wasp Vespula vulgaris (Foster and Ratnieks 2001a, 2001b), an important component of worker policing behavior is oophagy of worker-laid eggs.”
Sperm length, sperm storage and mating system characteristics in bumblebees (2003, background): “An additional comparative question of interest will be whether other social insect taxa with high variation in queen mating frequencies, such as fungus growing ants (Villesen et al., 2002) and vespid wasps ( Foster and Ratnieks, 2001 ), have also evolved longer sperm in at least some multiplymating ”
Ovariole number—a predictor of differential reproductive success among worker subfamilies in queenless honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) colonies (2006, background): “…a queen mating with several males, is occasionally encountered in social Hymenoptera (Cole 1983; Boomsma and Ratnieks 1996; Palmer and Oldroyd 2000; Foster and Ratnieks 2001a; Ross 2001; Paar et al. 2004), yet extreme polyandry, where a queen mates with more than ten drones, is very rare and is…”
Conflict resolution in insect societies. (2006, background): “Winged males mate mainly outside the nest and evade physical competition with the wingless males by chemically mimicking females (26).”