Size and asymmetry: are there costs to winning the royalty race?

Body size and morphology are key fitness-determining traits that can vary genotypically. They are likely to be important in social insect queens, which mate in swarms and found colonies independently, but genetic influences on queen morphology have been little investigated. Here, we show that the body size and morphology of queens are influenced by their genotype in the leaf-cutting ant Acromyrmex echinatior, a species in which certain lineages (patrilines) bias their development towards reproductive queens rather than sterile workers. We found no relationship between the queen-worker skew of patrilines and the size or morphology of queens, but there was a significant relationship with fluctuating asymmetry, which was greater in more queen-biased patrilines. Our results suggest that queen-biased patrilines do not incur a fitness cost in terms of body size, but may face more subtle costs in developmental stability. Such costs may constrain the evolution of royal cheating in social insects.

Environmental alternatives for rural development: the case of Oaxaca, Mexico.

This article examines various environmental alternatives within the context of forest resource-dependent communities of the State of Oaxaca, Mexico. Two main objectives were to describe particular rural development routes among different Mexican communities, and to explain why certain environmental options for rural development are selected over others. While many communities choose either sustainable or illegal logging options in Oaxaca, some may decide against logging of any kind. Four principal forest-based community categories, according to a government forest classification scheme, are discussed in the context of environmental alternatives for this article. Based on this typology, two "integrated forest management" communities in the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca are described and compared. One community's decision not to log within a shared land arrangement has caused significant tensions in the region. Key findings illustrate the extent to which rural communities can make appropriate environmental decisions and examines their effects on environmental and social sustainability. Increased rural involvement in environmental decision-making is called for, since rural residents are those most likely to appreciate nearby natural resources as a source of sustainable livelihoods. It is expected that this research may be applicable to rural areas of other countries.