The significance of multiple mating in the social wasp Vespula maculifrons

    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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