Cueva Del Castillo Raúl, Sanabria-Urbán Salomón, Serrano-Meneses Martín Alejandro
Lab. de Ecología; UBIPRO Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México FES Iztacala. A. P. 314 54090 Edo. México México.
Laboratorio de Biología Evolutiva Centro Tlaxcala de Biología de la Conducta Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala Carretera Tlaxcala-Puebla Km. 1.5 90062 Tlaxcala México.
Ecol Evol. 2015 Aug 25;5(18):3914-26. doi: 10.1002/ece3.1659. eCollection 2015 Sep.
Trade-offs between life-history traits - such as fecundity and survival - have been demonstrated in several studies. In eusocial insects, the number of organisms and their body sizes can affect the fitness of the colony. Large-than-average body sizes as well as more individuals can improve a colony's thermoregulation, foraging efficiency, and fecundity. However, in bumblebees, large colonies and large body sizes depend largely on high temperatures and a large amount of food resources. Bumblebee taxa can be found in temperate and tropical regions of the world and differ markedly in their colony sizes and body sizes. Variation in colony size and body size may be explained by the costs and benefits associated with the evolutionary history of each species in a particular environment. In this study, we explored the effect of temperature and precipitation (the latter was used as an indirect indicator of food availability) on the colony and body size of twenty-one bumblebee taxa. A comparative analysis controlling for phylogenetic effects as well as for the body size of queens, workers, and males in bumblebee taxa from temperate and tropical regions indicated that both temperature and precipitation affect colony and body size. We found a negative association between colony size and the rainiest trimester, and a positive association between the colony size and the warmest month of the year. In addition, male bumblebees tend to evolve larger body sizes in places where the rain occurs mostly in the summer and the overall temperature is warmer. Moreover, we found a negative relationship between colony size and body sizes of queens, workers, and males, suggesting potential trade-offs in the evolution of bumblebee colony and body size.
在多项研究中已证实了生活史特征之间的权衡——例如繁殖力和存活率。在群居昆虫中，生物体的数量及其体型会影响群体的适应性。体型大于平均水平以及个体数量更多能够提高群体的体温调节能力、觅食效率和繁殖力。然而，在大黄蜂中，大群体和大体型很大程度上依赖于高温和大量的食物资源。大黄蜂类群分布于世界的温带和热带地区，其群体大小和体型差异显著。群体大小和体型的变化可能由特定环境中每个物种进化历史相关的成本和收益来解释。在本研究中，我们探究了温度和降水量（后者用作食物可获得性的间接指标）对21个大黄蜂类群的群体大小和体型的影响。一项控制了系统发育效应以及温带和热带地区大黄蜂类群中蜂后、工蜂和雄蜂体型的比较分析表明，温度和降水量都会影响群体大小和体型。我们发现群体大小与降雨最多的季度呈负相关，与一年中最温暖的月份呈正相关。此外，在降雨主要集中在夏季且总体温度较高的地方，雄性大黄蜂往往会进化出更大的体型。而且，我们发现群体大小与蜂后、工蜂和雄蜂的体型之间存在负相关关系，这表明在大黄蜂群体大小和体型的进化中可能存在权衡。
