Fine-Scale Population Structure but Limited Genetic Differentiation in a Cooperatively Breeding Paper Wasp.

ABSTRACT: Relatively little is known about the processes shaping population structure in cooperatively breeding insect species, despite the long-hypothesized importance of population structure in shaping patterns of cooperative breeding. Polistes paper wasps are primitively eusocial insects, with a cooperative breeding system in which females often found nests in cooperative associations. Prior mark-recapture studies of Polistes have documented extreme female philopatry, although genetic studies frequently fail to detect the strong population structure expected for highly philopatric species. Together these findings have led to lack of consensus on the degree of dispersal and population structure in these species. This study assessed population structure of female Polistes fuscatus wasps at three sc

SUBMITTER: Bluher SE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7259676 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature