The presence of a guard vicariously drives split sex ratios in a facultatively social bee.

ABSTRACT: Split sex ratios provide broad insights into how reproductive strategies evolve, and historically have special relevance to the evolution of eusociality. Yet almost no attention has been directed to situations where split sex ratios may potentially decrease the payoffs for worker-like behaviour, increasing selective thresholds for eusociality. We examined sex ratios in a facultatively social colletid bee, Amphylaeus morosus. Sex ratios in this bee vary strongly with the presence of a nest guard and in a pattern that does not conform to assumptions of previous models in which split sex ratios facilitate altruism. While the production of daughters was constant across social and solitary nests, mothers produced more brood when a non-reproductive guard was present, but these extra brood

SUBMITTER: Hearn LR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9975655 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature