Miller Sara E, Bluher Sarah E, Bell Emily, Cini Alessandro, Silva Rafael Carvalho da, de Souza André Rodrigues, Gandia Kristine M, Jandt Jennifer, Loope Kevin, Prato Amanda, Pruitt Jonathan N, Rankin David, Rankin Erin, Southon Robin J, Uy Floria M K, Weiner Susan, Wright Colin M, Downing Holly, Gadagkar Raghavendra, Cristina Lorenzi M, Rusina Lidiya, Sumner Seirian, Tibbetts Elizabeth A, Toth Amy, Sheehan Michael J
Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 14853, USA.
School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TH, UK.
Ecology. 2018 Oct;99(10):2405. doi: 10.1002/ecy.2448. Epub 2018 Sep 4.
Cooperative breeding decreases the direct reproductive output of subordinate individuals, but cooperation can be evolutionarily favored when there are challenges or constraints to breeding independently. Environmental factors, including temperature, precipitation, latitude, high seasonality, and environmental harshness have been hypothesized to correlate with the presence of cooperative breeding. However, to test the relationship between cooperation and ecological constraints requires comparative data on the frequency and variation of cooperative breeding across differing environments, ideally replicated across multiple species. Paper wasps are primitively social species, forming colonies composed of reproductively active dominants and foraging subordinates. Adult female wasps, referred to as foundresses, initiate new colonies. Nests can be formed by a single solitary foundress (noncooperative) or by multiple foundress associations (cooperative). Cooperative behavior varies within and among species, making paper wasps species well suited to disentangling ecological correlates of variation in cooperative behavior. This data set reports the frequency and extent of cooperative nest founding for 87 paper wasp species. Data were assembled from more than 170 published sources, previously unpublished field observations, and photographs contributed by citizen scientists to online natural history repositories. The data set includes 25,872 nest observations and reports the cooperative behavioral decisions for 45,297 foundresses. Species names were updated to reflect modern taxonomic revisions. The type of substrate on which the nest was built is also included, when available. A smaller population-level version of this data set found that the presence or absence of cooperative nesting in paper wasps was correlated with temperature stability and environmental harshness, but these variables did not predict the extent of cooperation within species. This expanded data set contains details about individual nests and further increases the power to address the relationship between the environment and the presence and extent of cooperative breeding. Beyond the ecological drivers of cooperation, these high-resolution data will be useful for future studies examining the evolutionary consequences of variation in social behavior. This data set may be used for research or educational purposes provided that this data paper is cited.
合作繁殖会降低从属个体的直接繁殖产出，但当独立繁殖面临挑战或限制时，合作在进化上可能会受到青睐。据推测，包括温度、降水、纬度、高季节性和环境恶劣程度在内的环境因素与合作繁殖的存在相关。然而，要检验合作与生态限制之间的关系，需要关于不同环境中合作繁殖频率和变异的比较数据，理想情况下是跨多个物种进行复制。胡蜂是原始社会性物种，形成由具有繁殖活性的优势个体和觅食从属个体组成的群体。成年雌性胡蜂，即奠基蜂，开始建立新的群体。巢穴可以由单个独居的奠基蜂（非合作）或多个奠基蜂联合（合作）形成。合作行为在物种内部和物种之间存在差异，这使得胡蜂物种非常适合用于解开合作行为变异的生态关联因素。该数据集报告了87种胡蜂合作筑巢的频率和程度。数据来自170多个已发表的来源、以前未发表的实地观察以及公民科学家提供给在线自然历史知识库的照片。该数据集包括25872次巢穴观察，并报告了45297只奠基蜂的合作行为决策。物种名称已更新以反映现代分类学修订。还包括巢穴建造所使用的基质类型（如果有）。该数据集的一个较小的种群水平版本发现，胡蜂中合作筑巢的有无与温度稳定性和环境恶劣程度相关，但这些变量并不能预测物种内部的合作程度。这个扩展后的数据集包含了关于单个巢穴的详细信息，并进一步增强了探讨环境与合作繁殖的存在及程度之间关系的能力。除了合作的生态驱动因素外，这些高分辨率数据将有助于未来研究社会行为变异的进化后果。只要引用本数据论文，该数据集可用于研究或教育目的。
