Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10027, USA.
Tennenbaum Marine Observatories Network, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, 20013, USA.
Ecol Lett. 2017 Dec;20(12):1516-1525. doi: 10.1111/ele.12857. Epub 2017 Oct 4.
Evidence from insects and vertebrates suggests that cooperation may have enabled species to expand their niches, becoming ecological generalists and dominating the ecosystems in which they occur. Consistent with this idea, eusocial species of sponge-dwelling Synalpheus shrimps from Belize are ecological generalists with a broader host breadth and higher abundance than non-eusocial species. We evaluate whether sociality promotes ecological generalism (social conquest hypothesis) or whether ecological generalism facilitates the transition to sociality (social transition hypothesis) in 38 Synalpheus shrimp species. We find that sociality evolves primarily from host generalists, and almost exclusively so for transitions to eusociality. Additionally, sponge volume is more important for explaining social transitions towards communal breeding than to eusociality, suggesting that different ecological factors may influence the independent evolutionary origins of sociality in Synalpheus shrimps. Ultimately, our results are consistent with the social transition hypothesis and the idea that ecological generalism facilitates the transition to sociality.
来自昆虫和脊椎动物的证据表明，合作可能使物种能够扩大其生态位，成为生态上的通才，并在它们所处的生态系统中占据主导地位。与这一观点一致的是，来自伯利兹的海绵居住的 Synalpheus 虾的真社会性物种是生态上的通才，它们的宿主范围更广，丰度也高于非真社会性物种。我们评估了社会性是否促进了生态通才性（社会征服假说），或者生态通才性是否促进了向社会性的转变（社会转变假说），在 38 种 Synalpheus 虾物种中。我们发现，社会性主要从宿主通才进化而来，而且几乎完全是向真社会性的进化。此外，海绵体积对于解释向群居繁殖的社会性转变比解释真社会性更为重要，这表明不同的生态因素可能影响 Synalpheus 虾社会性的独立进化起源。最终，我们的结果与社会转变假说以及生态通才性促进向社会性转变的观点一致。
