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Stable relatedness structure of the large-colony swarm-founding wasp Polybia paulista

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Abstract

In social-insect colonies, cooperation among nestmates is generally stabilized by their high genetic similarity. Thus, fitness gained through cooperation drops quickly as the number of reproductive females (queens) increases. In this respect, wasps of the tribe Epiponini have attracted special attention, because the colonies have tens, or even hundreds of queens. It has been empirically or genetically confirmed that relatedness within nestmates can be elevated by a mechanism known as cyclical monogyny, under which new queens are produced only after the number of old queens is reduced to one. Another likely factor that can increase relatedness within nestmates under polygyny is comb partitioning by queens. If queens concentrate their egg laying on one or a subset of the available combs, then workers may be able to rear closer relatives by focusing their work on the comb where they emerged. Using microsatellite markers, we tested the hypotheses of cyclical monogyny and comb partitioning by queens increasing relatedness within nestmates under polygyny in the large-colony epiponine wasp, Polybia paulista. There were no significant differences between relatedness within combs and between combs, and thus we ruled out the possibility that each queen partitions reproduction between combs. However, as cyclical monogyny predicts, a lower effective number of queens contributed to queen production than to worker production. Cyclical monogyny explained well the observed smaller effective number of queens for new queens than that for workers, but failed to explain the stable relatedness values throughout colony cycles.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to E. Kasuya, B. Kranz, M.J. West-Eberhard and two anonymous referees who made invaluable comments and suggestions for the improvement of the text. We also thank K.F. Goodnight for advice on the use of his program Relatedness. This study was supported in part by Research Fellowships of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science for Young Scientists to K. Kudô (no. 02415) and a Grant-in-Aid for Basic Research from the Japan Ministry of Education, Science and Culture (nos. 10041154 and 12575004) to Sô. Yamane. This study was also supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for Basic Research from the Japan Ministry of Education, Science and Culture (no. 12304048). This work complies with the laws of Brazil and Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Ecological Entomology, Faculty of Applied Biological Sciences, Gifu University, 501-1193, Gifu , Japan

    Kazuyuki Kudô, Sumiko Tsujita, Koji Tsuchida & Wakana Goi

  2. Biological Laboratory, Faculty of Education, Ibaraki University, 310-8512, Mito , Japan

    Sôichi Yamane

  3. Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras, Universidade de São Paulo, USP, 14040-901 Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil

    Sidnei Mateus & Ronaldo Zucchi

  4. 2908, Kaguyama 2-chome, Nisshin, 470-0134, Aichi , Japan

    Yosiaki Itô

  5. Natural History Museum and Institute, Chiba, 955-2 Aoba-cho, Chuo-ku, 260-8682, Chiba , Japan

    Shinya Miyano

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  1. Kazuyuki Kudô
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  9. Ronaldo Zucchi
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Correspondence to Kazuyuki Kudô.

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Communicated by L. Keller

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Kudô, K., Tsujita, S., Tsuchida, K. et al. Stable relatedness structure of the large-colony swarm-founding wasp Polybia paulista. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 58, 27–35 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-004-0903-5

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