Serial polygyny in the primitively eusocial wasp Ropalidia marginata: implications for the evolution of sociality

Gadagkar, Raghavendra and Chandrashekara, Krishnappa and Chandran, Swarnalatha and Bhagavan, Seetha (1993) Serial polygyny in the primitively eusocial wasp Ropalidia marginata: implications for the evolution of sociality. [Book Chapter]

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Abstract

Social insects usually live in colonies comprising one or a small number of reproductive individuals and a few or large number of sterile individuals. In termites only, both sexes are represented among the reproductives as well as among the sterile workers. In other social insects, namely ants, bees, and wasps, males do not participate significantly in the social life of colonies, which involves primarily the fertile queens and sterile female workers (Wilson 1971). The haplodiploid genetic system found universally in the Hymenoptera creates an asymmetry in genetic relatedness such that a female is more closely related to her full sister (coefficient of genetic relatedness, r = 0.75) than to her offspring (r = 0.5). This makes inclusive fitness theory (Hamilton, 19640, b) particularly applicable to the evolution of sterile worker castes in the social hymenoptera (Wilson 1971; Hamilton 1972).

Item Type:	Book Chapter
Publication:	Queen Number and Sociality in Insects
Publisher:	Oxford University
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to Oxford University.
Department/Centre:	Division of Biological Sciences > Centre for Ecological Sciences
Date Deposited:	27 Feb 2007
Last Modified:	19 Sep 2010 04:34
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/9490

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