Social enforcement depending on the stage of colony growth in an ant.
Proc Biol Sci
; 285(1875)2018 03 28.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-29593107
ABSTRACT
Altruism is a paradox in Darwinian evolution. Policing is an important mechanism of the evolution and maintenance of altruism. A recently developed dynamic game model incorporating colony demography and inclusive fitness predicts that, in hymenopteran social insects, policing behaviour enforcing reproductive altruism in group members depends strongly on the colony growth stage, with strong policing as the colony develops and a relaxation of policing during the reproductive phase. Here, we report clear evidence supporting this prediction. In the ant Diacamma sp., reproduction by workers was suppressed by worker policing when the colony was small, whereas in large, mature colonies worker policing was relaxed and worker-produced males emerged. Conditional expression of traits can provide strong empirical evidence for natural selection theory if the expression pattern is precisely predicted by the theory, and our results illustrate the importance of intracolony population dynamics in the evolution of social systems.
Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Formigas
/
Comportamento Animal
/
Altruísmo
Tipo de estudo:
Prognostic_studies
Limite:
Animals
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Proc Biol Sci
Ano de publicação:
2018
Tipo de documento:
Article