Summary
Overwintered and newly co-founded nests of Exoneura bicolor exhibit different grades of sociality. Intra-colony relatedness was estimated for adults and female brood in both nest types using allozyme data and a multiallelic estimator. The higher relatedness among female brood from overwintered nests compared to newly-founded nests is consistent with the difference in sociality between these colony types (semisocial versus quasisocial). However, intra-colony relatedness among adults is higher in cofounded nests than in overwintered nests, suggesting that differences in sociality are determined by benefit/cost ratios associated with non-reproductive strategies, rather than relatedness between interactants. Rapid egg-production in newly founded nests allows eggs to be ‘stockpiled’. This reduceds the tasks available to non-reproductives in early phases of colony development and limits the payoffs available for reproductive altruism. It is suggested that the social flexibility characteristic of allodapines is a consequence of communal progressive rearing which allows many benefits from cooperative nesting to be gained without worker sterility.
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Schwarz, M.P. Intra-colony relatedness and sociality in the allodapine bee Exoneura bicolor . Behav Ecol Sociobiol 21, 387–392 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00299933
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00299933