Facultative worker policing in a wasp

Kevin R. Foster () and Francis L. W. Ratnieks
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Kevin R. Foster: Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects, Sheffield University
Francis L. W. Ratnieks: Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects, Sheffield University

Nature, 2000, vol. 407, issue 6805, 692-693

Abstract: Abstract Kin-selection theory predicts that in social-insect colonies where the queen has mated multiple times, the workers will enforce cooperation by policing each other's reproduction1,2,3,4. We have discovered a species, the wasp Dolichovespula saxonica, in which some queens mate once and others mate many times, and in which workers frequently attempt reproduction, allowing this prediction to be tested directly. We find that multiple mating by the queen leads to mutual policing by workers, whereas single mating does not.

Date: 2000
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DOI: 10.1038/35037665

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