Care-giver identity impacts offspring development and performance in an annually social bumble bee.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The developmental fates of offspring have the potential to be influenced by the identity of their care-givers and by the nature of the care that they receive. In animals that exhibit both parental and alloparental care, such as the annually eusocial insects, the influence of care-giver identity can be directly assessed to yield mechanistic and evolutionary insights into the origins and elaboration of brood care. Here, we performed a comparative investigation of maternal and worker brood care in bumble bees, a pollinator group where mothers (queens) rear the first offspring in the nest, and then daughters (workers) assume this role upon their emergence. Specifically, we compared the effects of queen and worker brood care on offspring development and also offspring perform

SUBMITTER: Costa CP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7871553 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature