How competition between overlapping generations can influence optimal egg-laying strategies in annual social insects.

ABSTRACT: Annual social insects are an integral functional group of organisms, particularly in temperate environments. An emblematic part of their annual cycle is the social phase, during which the colony-founding queen rears workers that later assist her in rearing sexual progeny (gynes and drones). In many annual social insects, such as species of bees, wasps, and other groups, developing larvae are provisioned gradually as they develop (progressive provisioning) leading to multiple larval generations being reared simultaneously. We present a model for how the queen in such cases should optimize her egg-laying rate throughout the social phase depending on number-size trade-offs, colony age-structure, and energy balance. Complementing previous theory on optimal allocation between workers vs. sexual

SUBMITTER: Johansson J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10386978 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature