Title

The significance of multiple mating in the social wasp Vespula maculifrons

Authors

Authors

M. A. D. Goodisman; J. L. Kovacs;E. A. Hoffman

Comments

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Abbreviated Journal Title

Evolution

Keywords

Hymenoptera; kin selection; polyandry; polymorphic microsatellite; marker; relatedness; social insect; Vespidae; SPLIT SEX-RATIOS; EUSOCIAL HYMENOPTERA; APIS-MELLIFERA; KIN SELECTION; MICROSATELLITE LOCI; GENETIC DIVERSITY; HONEY-BEES; ANT; POLYANDRY; EVOLUTION; Ecology; Evolutionary Biology; Genetics & Heredity

Abstract

The evolution of the complex societies displayed by social insects depended partly on high relatedness among interacting group members. Therefore, behaviors that depress group relatedness, such as multiple mating by reproductive females (polyandry), are unexpected in social insects. Nevertheless, the queens of several social insect species mate multiply, suggesting that polyandry provides some benefits that counteract the costs. However, few studies have obtained evidence for links between rates of polyandry and fitness in naturally occurring social insect populations. We investigated if polyandry was beneficial in the social wasp Vespula maculifrons. We used genetic markers to estimate queen mate number in V. maculifrons colonies and assessed colony fitness by counting the number of cells that colonies produced. Our results indicated that queen mate number was directly, strongly, and significantly correlated with the number of queen cells produced by colonies. Because V. maculifrons queens are necessarily reared in queen cells, our results demonstrate that high levels of polyandry are associated with colonies capable of producing many new queens. These data are consistent with the explanation that polyandry is adaptive in V. maculifrons because it provides a fitness advantage to queens. Our research may provide a rare example of an association between polyandry and fitness in a natural social insect population and help explain why queens in this taxon mate multiply.

Journal Title

Evolution

Volume

61

Issue/Number

9

Publication Date

1-1-2007

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

2260

Last Page

2267

WOS Identifier

WOS:000249101800017

ISSN

0014-3820

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