Hart A G, Ratnieks F L W
Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects, Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
J Evol Biol. 2005 Mar;18(2):383-95. doi: 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2004.00832.x.
Reproduction in groups may be unequal, with one or a few individuals monopolizing direct reproduction assisted by nonbreeding helpers. In social insects this has frequently led to a pronounced queen-worker dichotomy and a loss of reproductive totipotency among workers. However, in some invertebrate and all vertebrate societies, all or most individuals remain reproductively totipotent. In these groups, conflicts of interest over reproduction are potentially greatest. Here, we synthesize previous analyses of reproductive conflict, aggression and breeder replacement in haplodiploid societies of totipotent individuals and extend them to cover diploid (vertebrate) examples. We test predictions arising from this approach using the best-studied invertebrate (Dinoponera queenless ants) and vertebrate (naked mole-rat, Heterocephalus glaber) examples, although in principle our analysis applies to all similar groups. We find that premature replacement of a parent breeder by nonbreeders (overthrow) is rare. Dominant coercive control of nonbreeders by the breeder is often unnecessary and honest signalling of breeder vitality can maintain group stability and resolve conflicts over reproduction. We hope that by providing an explicit transfer of social theory between ants and naked mole-rats we will stimulate further cross-taxonomic studies that will greatly broaden our understanding of sociality.
群体中的繁殖可能是不平等的，由一个或少数个体在不繁殖的帮手协助下垄断直接繁殖。在社会性昆虫中，这常常导致明显的蚁后 - 工蚁二分法以及工蚁丧失生殖全能性。然而，在一些无脊椎动物和所有脊椎动物群体中，所有或大多数个体仍保持生殖全能性。在这些群体中，繁殖方面的利益冲突可能最为严重。在此，我们综合了之前对全能个体单倍二倍体群体中生殖冲突、攻击行为和繁殖者替代的分析，并将其扩展至涵盖二倍体（脊椎动物）的例子。我们使用研究最为充分的无脊椎动物（无蚁后亚马逊蚁）和脊椎动物（裸鼹鼠，裸鼹形鼠）的例子来检验基于此方法得出的预测，尽管原则上我们的分析适用于所有类似群体。我们发现非繁殖者过早取代亲代繁殖者（推翻）的情况很少见。繁殖者对非繁殖者的主导性强制控制通常是不必要的，繁殖者活力的诚实信号能够维持群体稳定并解决繁殖方面的冲突。我们希望通过在蚂蚁和裸鼹鼠之间明确地进行社会理论的转换，能够激发进一步的跨分类研究，从而极大地拓宽我们对社会性的理解。
