Reproductive concessions between related and unrelated members promote eusociality in bees.

ABSTRACT: Animal societies exhibit remarkable variation in their breeding strategies. Individuals can maximize their fitness by either reproducing or by helping relatives. Social hymenopterans have been key taxa for the study of Hamilton's inclusive fitness theory because the haplodiploid sex-determination system results in asymmetric relatedness among breeders producing conflict over the partitioning of reproduction. In small cooperative groups of insects, totipotent individuals may maximize their inclusive fitness by controlling reproduction despotically rather than helping their relatives. Here, we demonstrate that the dominant females of the primitively eusocial bee Euglossa melanotricha (Apidae: Euglossini) control reproduction, but concede part of the reproductive output with their related and

SUBMITTER: Andrade AC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4876382 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature