Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Karnataka 560012, India.
Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Karnataka 560012, India
Biol Lett. 2018 Feb;14(2). doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2017.0592.
In primitively eusocial insects, many individuals function as workers despite being capable of independent reproduction. Such altruistic behaviour is usually explained by the argument that workers gain indirect fitness by helping close genetic relatives. The focus on indirect fitness has left open the question of whether workers are also capable of getting direct fitness in the future in spite of working towards indirect fitness in the present. To investigate this question, we recorded behavioural profiles of all wasps on six naturally occurring nests of , and then isolated all wasps in individual plastic boxes, giving them an opportunity to initiate nests and lay eggs. We found that 41% of the wasps successfully did so. Compared to those that failed to initiate nests, those that did were significantly younger, had significantly higher frequency of self-feeding behaviour on their parent nests but were not different in the levels of work performed in the parent nests. Thus ageing and poor feeding, rather than working for their colonies, constrain individuals for future independent reproduction. Hence, future direct fitness and present work towards gaining indirect fitness are not incompatible, making it easier for worker behaviour to be selected by kin selection or multilevel selection.
在原始真社会性昆虫中，许多个体尽管能够独立繁殖，但仍作为工蜂发挥作用。这种利他行为通常可以用以下论点来解释：工蜂通过帮助近亲获得间接适合度。关注间接适合度使得一个问题没有得到解答，即尽管现在为间接适合度而努力，工蜂是否也有能力在未来获得直接适合度。为了研究这个问题，我们记录了 六种自然发生的巢中的所有胡蜂的行为特征，然后将所有胡蜂单独隔离在塑料盒中，给它们一个开始筑巢和产卵的机会。我们发现，有 41%的胡蜂成功地做到了这一点。与那些未能开始筑巢的胡蜂相比，那些成功筑巢的胡蜂明显更年轻，在其亲代巢中自我喂食的频率明显更高，但在亲代巢中所做的工作量没有差异。因此，衰老和不良的喂养，而不是为它们的群体工作，限制了个体未来的独立繁殖。因此，未来的直接适合度和现在获得间接适合度的工作并不相互排斥，这使得工蜂行为更容易受到亲缘选择或多层次选择的选择。
