Eusociality outcompetes egalitarian and solitary strategies when resources are limited and reproduction is costly.

ABSTRACT: Explaining the evolution and maintenance of animal groups remains a challenge. Surprisingly, fundamental ecological factors, such as resource variance and competition for limited resources, tend to be ignored in models of cooperation. We use a mathematical model previously developed to quantify the influence of different group sizes on resource use efficiency in egalitarian groups and extend its scope to groups with severe reproductive skew (eusocial groups). Accounting for resource limitation, the model allows calculation of optimal group sizes (highest resource use efficiency) and equilibrium population sizes in egalitarian as well as eusocial groups for a broad spectrum of environmental conditions (variance of resource supply). We show that, in contrast to egalitarian groups, eusocial g

SUBMITTER: Fronhofer EA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6309011 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature