Laboratory of Entomology, Zoological Institute, Department of Biology, Catholic University of Leuven, Naamsestraat 59, Box 2466, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
Mol Ecol. 2011 Aug;20(16):3455-68. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2011.05200.x. Epub 2011 Jul 18.
Inclusive fitness theory predicts that in colonies of social Hymenoptera headed by a multiple-mated queen, workers should benefit from policing eggs laid by other workers. Foster & Ratnieks provided evidence that in the vespine wasp Dolichovespula saxonica, workers police other workers' eggs only in colonies headed by a multiple-mated queen, but not in those headed by a single-mated one. This conclusion, however, was based on a relatively small sample size, and the original study did not control for possible confounding variables such as the seasonal colony progression of the nests. Our aim, therefore, was to reinvestigate whether or not facultative worker policing occurs in D. saxonica. Remarkably, our data show that in the studied Danish population, there was no correlation between worker-worker relatedness and the percentage of worker-derived males. In addition, we show that variability in cuticular hydrocarbon profiles among the workers did not significantly correlate with relatedness and that workers therefore probably did not have sufficient information on queen mating frequency from the workers' cuticular hydrocarbon profiles. Hence, there was no evidence that workers facultatively policed other workers' eggs in response to queen mating frequency. Nevertheless, our data do show that the seasonal progression of the nest and the location in which the males were reared both explain the patterns of worker reproduction found. Overall, our results suggest that the earlier evidence for facultative worker policing in D. saxonica may have been caused by accidental correlations with certain confounding variables, or, alternatively, that there are large interpopulation differences in the expression of worker policing.
包容性适合度理论预测，在由多配偶蜂王领导的社会性膜翅目昆虫群体中，工蜂应该从对其他工蜂产下的卵进行“清理”中受益。Foster 和 Ratnieks 提供的证据表明，在胡蜂科的 Dolichovespula saxonica 中，工蜂仅在由多配偶蜂王领导的群体中对其他工蜂的卵进行“清理”，而不在由单配偶蜂王领导的群体中进行。然而，这一结论是基于相对较小的样本量得出的，并且原始研究并未控制可能的混杂变量，例如巢穴的季节性群体进展。因此，我们的目的是重新调查在 D. saxonica 中是否存在强制性工蜂“清理”。值得注意的是，我们的数据表明，在所研究的丹麦种群中，工蜂之间的亲缘关系与工蜂来源的雄性个体比例之间没有相关性。此外，我们表明，工蜂之间的表皮碳氢化合物谱的变异性与亲缘关系没有显著相关性，因此工蜂可能无法从工蜂的表皮碳氢化合物谱中获得关于蜂王交配频率的足够信息。因此，没有证据表明工蜂会根据蜂王交配频率而选择性地“清理”其他工蜂的卵。然而，我们的数据确实表明，巢穴的季节性进展以及雄性被饲养的位置都可以解释所发现的工蜂繁殖模式。总的来说，我们的研究结果表明，在 D. saxonica 中，先前关于强制性工蜂“清理”的证据可能是由于与某些混杂变量的偶然相关性造成的，或者，可能是由于工蜂“清理”在不同种群之间存在很大的差异。
