Complex social behaviour derived from maternal reproductive traits

Gro V. Amdam (), Angela Csondes, M. Kim Fondrk and Robert E. Page ()
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Gro V. Amdam: Arizona State University, School of Life Sciences
Angela Csondes: University of California
M. Kim Fondrk: Arizona State University, School of Life Sciences
Robert E. Page: Arizona State University, School of Life Sciences

Nature, 2006, vol. 439, issue 7072, 76-78

Abstract: Working together On the cover, a solitary bee forages for pollen as a protein-source for her brood alongside a sterile ‘eusocial’ worker honey bee. The social biology of these two females is different, but the evolutionary origin of their behaviour is identical. A eusocial lifestyle involves sterile workers that care for younger siblings. One explanation of how this behaviour arose invokes selection on maternal reproductive traits, and experiments in the honey bee confirm this as a possibility. Intriguingly, differences in worker bee behaviour can be explained by variation in reproductive characteristics. Strains selected to prefer pollen-foraging over nectar-foraging have workers with high, typically unexpressed, reproductive potential. Unselected bees with a high reproductive potential also prefer to collect pollen. This means that maternal traits can act as an evolutionary bridgehead between the solitary estate and worker-containing insect societies.

Date: 2006
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DOI: 10.1038/nature04340

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