Abstract
Kin selection theory predicts that workers in social insect colonies should preferentially aid close relatives over less related or unrelated individuals if such behaviors increase inclusive fitness. For example, a worker in a polygynous (multiple-queen) colony is predicted to tend its own mother rather than an unrelated queen if this nepotistic behavior increases its mother’s reproductive success in excess of costs. Despite predictions, experimental tests conducted in the social Hymenoptera have found no clear evidence of nepotism. No tests for nepotism have been carried out in the Isoptera (termites), another major insect taxon showing highly developed sociality. We tested for nepotistic behavior in the termite Nasutitermes corniger by determining if workers preferentially fed and groomed their mothers in a laboratory assay. We collected workers from nine naturally occurring multiple-queen colonies as they tended queens and determined their parentage using highly variable microsatellite markers. Our results provide no evidence that workers tend their mothers in preference to co-occurring queens. The absence of evidence for nepotism is consistent with previous results reported from numerous studies of eusocial hymenopterans.
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Acknowledgments
We thank the staff of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute for logistical support, the Gamboa Rainforest Resort for allowing us to conduct studies on their property, and the Republic of Panama’s National Authority for the Environment for permission to collect termites. Gary and Ben Wolsieffer helped with field work and termite collection. Else Fjerdingstad, DeWayne Shoemaker, and two anonymous reviewers provided helpful comments on earlier versions of the manuscript. This research was funded by NSF grant DEB-0212613. The experiments presented here comply with the current laws of the Republic of Panama and the USA.
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Atkinson, L., Teschendorf, G. & Adams, E.S. Lack of evidence for nepotism by workers tending queens of the polygynous termite Nasutitermes corniger . Behav Ecol Sociobiol 62, 805–812 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-007-0506-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-007-0506-z