Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.
Bee Man Exterminators LLC, Olympia, WA, USA.
BMC Evol Biol. 2014 Dec 30;14:277. doi: 10.1186/s12862-014-0277-x.
The puzzle of the selective benefits of multiple mating and multiple paternity in social insects has been a major focus of research in evolutionary biology. We examine paternity in a clade of social insects, the vespine wasps (the yellowjackets and hornets), which contains species with high multiple paternity as well as species with single paternity. This group is particularly useful for comparative analyses given the wide interspecific variation in paternity traits despite similar sociobiology and ecology of the species in the genera Vespula, Dolichovespula and Vespa. We describe the paternity of 5 species of yellowjackets (Vespula spp.) and we perform a phylogenetically controlled comparative analysis of relatedness, paternity frequency, paternity skew, colony size, and nest site across 22 vespine taxa.
We found moderate multiple paternity in four small-colony Vespula rufa-group species (effective paternity 1.5 - 2.1), and higher multiple paternity in the large-colony Vespula flavopilosa (effective paternity ~3.1). Our comparative analysis shows that colony size, but not nest site, predicts average intracolony relatedness. Underlying this pattern, we found that greater colony size is associated with both higher paternity frequency and reduced paternity skew.
Our results support hypotheses focusing on the enhancement of genetic diversity in species with large colonies, and run counter to the hypothesis that multiple paternity is adaptively maintained due to sperm limitation associated with large colonies. We confirm the patterns observed in taxonomically widespread analyses by comparing closely related species of wasps with similar ecology, behavior and social organization. The vespine wasps may be a useful group for experimental investigation of the benefits of multiple paternity in the future.
在社会性昆虫中，多次交配和多父权制的选择性益处一直是进化生物学研究的主要焦点。我们研究了一个社会性昆虫的分支，即胡蜂（黄蜂和马蜂）的父权制，其中包含具有高多父权制的物种以及具有单父权制的物种。由于在 Vespula、Dolichovespula 和 Vespa 属的物种中具有相似的社会生物学和生态学，但在父权特征上存在广泛的种间变异，因此该群体特别适合进行比较分析。我们描述了 5 种黄蜂（Vespula spp.）的父权制，并对 22 种胡蜂类群的亲缘关系、父权频率、父权倾斜、群体大小和巢址进行了系统发育控制的比较分析。
我们发现，四个小群体的 Vespula rufa 组物种中有适度的多次交配（有效父权 1.5-2.1），而大群体的 Vespula flavopilosa 则有更高的多次交配（有效父权约 3.1）。我们的比较分析表明，群体大小而不是巢址预测了群体内的平均亲缘关系。在这种模式的基础上，我们发现更大的群体大小与更高的父权频率和降低的父权倾斜有关。
我们的结果支持了那些关注具有大群体的物种中遗传多样性增强的假说，与由于与大群体相关的精子限制而导致多父权制适应性维持的假说相悖。我们通过比较具有相似生态、行为和社会组织的近缘黄蜂物种，证实了在分类上广泛分析中观察到的模式。胡蜂可能是未来研究多父权制益处的一个有用群体。
