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Sex-biased dispersal, haplodiploidy and the evolution of helping in social insects
- Source :
- Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 279:787-793
- Publication Year :
- 2011
- Publisher :
- The Royal Society, 2011.
-
Abstract
- In his famous haplodiploidy hypothesis, W. D. Hamilton proposed that high sister–sister relatedness facilitates the evolution of kin-selected reproductive altruism among Hymenopteran females. Subsequent analyses, however, suggested that haplodiploidy cannot promote altruism unless altruists capitalize on relatedness asymmetries by helping to raise offspring whose sex ratio is more female-biased than the population at large. Here, we show that haplodiploidy is in fact more favourable than is diploidy to the evolution of reproductive altruism on the part of females, provided only that dispersal is male-biased (no sex-ratio bias or active kin discrimination is required). The effect is strong, and applies to the evolution both of sterile female helpers and of helping among breeding females. Moreover, a review of existing data suggests that female philopatry and non-local mating are widespread among nest-building Hymenoptera. We thus conclude that Hamilton was correct in his claim that ‘family relationships in the Hymenoptera are potentially very favourable to the evolution of reproductive altruism’.
- Subjects :
- Male
media_common.quotation_subject
Population
Zoology
Kin selection
Biology
Altruism
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
Sex Factors
Animals
Sex Ratio
Mating
Social Behavior
education
Research Articles
health care economics and organizations
General Environmental Science
media_common
education.field_of_study
General Immunology and Microbiology
Reproduction
General Medicine
Sex Determination Processes
Diploidy
Hymenoptera
Evolutionary biology
behavior and behavior mechanisms
Haplodiploidy
Biological dispersal
Female
Philopatry
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
Sex ratio
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 14712954 and 09628452
- Volume :
- 279
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....ca4784f9f439616a278c05aa93aa8000