Department of Entomology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1988 Jun;85(12):4374-7. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.12.4374.
Many of the females of the first summer brood of the sweat bee Halictus rubicundus mate, soon vanish from the nesting site, undergo diapause, and return unworn the following spring to found their own nests without ever functioning as workers. Roughly half a season's foundresses may originate in this way. This finding contradicts previous assumptions regarding timing of reproductive production in sweat bees and offers a remarkable example of intraspecific social diversity; some females in the population behave as solitary bees while others are social. Such behavior may be widespread in bees and wasps, for it is almost undetectable with ordinary field techniques. These findings require the reevaluation of previous studies of sweat bee life cycles and of theories and models of the evolution of primitive insect societies.
许多第一代夏季育肥的胡蜂 Halictus rubicundus 雌性在交配后不久就会从筑巢地消失，进入休眠状态，并在来年春天不参与任何工蜂活动的情况下返回筑巢。大约有一半的育雏蜂可能是通过这种方式产生的。这一发现与之前关于胡蜂生殖生产时间的假设相矛盾，并提供了一个显著的种内社会多样性的例子；种群中的一些雌性表现为独居蜂，而另一些则是社会性的。这种行为可能在蜜蜂和黄蜂中很普遍，因为用普通的野外技术几乎无法检测到。这些发现需要重新评估之前关于胡蜂生命周期以及原始昆虫社会进化的理论和模型的研究。
