Drifting bumble bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) workers in commercial greenhouses may be social parasites

2004 ◽  
Vol 82 (12) ◽  
pp. 1843-1853 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna L Birmingham ◽  
Shelley E Hoover ◽  
Mark L Winston ◽  
Ron C Ydenberg
Keyword(s):  
Social Insect ◽  
Social Parasitism ◽  
Worker Reproduction ◽  
Bumble Bee ◽  
Nectar Robbing ◽  
Social Parasites ◽  
Aggressive Interactions ◽  
Insect Societies ◽  
Bombus Occidentalis ◽  
Behavioural Consequence

Commercial greenhouses require high densities of managed bumble bee (Bombus occidentalis Greene, 1858 and Bombus impatiens Cresson, 1863) colonies to pollinate crops such as tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum Miller). We examined drifting, a behavioural consequence of introducing closely aggregated colonies into greenhouse habitats, to determine possible explanations for observed drifting frequencies. Bee drift is normally associated with increased individual mortality and disease transfer between colonies. In this study, individual bees frequently drifted into and remained within foreign colonies. More drifting bees were found in colonies with higher worker and brood populations and greater pollen stores. Increased intracolony aggressive interactions were not associated with a higher number of drifting bees. Drifting bees had a significantly greater number of mature eggs in their ovaries than did resident worker bees residing in colonies hosting drifters, suggesting that drifting could potentially increase the fitness of individual worker bees and may not be solely a function of disorientation and (or) nectar robbing. Taken together, our results suggest that drifting of workers into foreign colonies within greenhouses may demonstrate a predisposition to social parasitism. This selfish worker reproduction challenges our previous understanding of social insect societies as being cooperative societies.

scholarly journals Methylation and worker reproduction in the bumble-bee ( Bombus terrestris )

2014 ◽  
Vol 281 (1780) ◽  
pp. 20132502 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harindra E. Amarasinghe ◽  
Crisenthiya I. Clayton ◽  
Eamonn B. Mallon
Keyword(s):  
Genomic Imprinting ◽  
Social Insects ◽  
Social Insect ◽  
Bombus Terrestris ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Worker Reproduction ◽  
Bumble Bee ◽  
Reproductive Division Of Labour ◽  
Reproductive Division

Insects are at the dawn of an epigenetics era. Numerous social insect species have been found to possess a functioning methylation system, previously not thought to exist in insects. Methylation, an epigenetic tag, may be vital for the sociality and division of labour for which social insects are renowned. In the bumble-bee Bombus terrestris , we found methylation differences between the genomes of queenless reproductive workers and queenless non-reproductive workers. In a follow up experiment, queenless workers whose genomes had experimentally altered methylation were more aggressive and more likely to develop ovaries compared with control queenless workers. This shows methylation is important in this highly plastic reproductive division of labour. Methylation is an epigenetic tag for genomic imprinting (GI). It is intriguing that the main theory to explain the evolution of GI predicts that GI should be important in this worker reproduction behaviour.

scholarly journals Inquiline social parasites as tools to unlock the secrets of insect sociality

2019 ◽  
Vol 374 (1769) ◽  
pp. 20180193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Cini ◽  
Seirian Sumner ◽  
Rita Cervo
Keyword(s):  
Social Parasitism ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Social Parasite ◽  
Social Parasites ◽  
Insect Societies ◽  
History Of ◽  
Reproductive Division Of Labour ◽  
Insect Sociality ◽  
Taxonomic Groups ◽  
Reproductive Division

Insect societies play a crucial role in the functioning of most ecosystems and have fascinated both scientists and the lay public for centuries. Despite the long history of study, we are still far from understanding how insect societies have evolved and how social cohesion in their colonies is maintained. Here we suggest inquiline social parasites of insect societies as an under-exploited experimental tool for understanding sociality. We draw on examples from obligate inquiline (permanent) social parasites in wasps, ants and bees to illustrate how these parasites may allow us to better understand societies and learn more about the evolution and functioning of insect societies. We highlight three main features of these social parasite–host systems—namely, close phylogenetic relationships, strong selective pressures arising from coevolution and multiple independent origins—that make inquiline social parasites particularly suited for this aim; we propose a conceptual comparative framework that considers trait losses, gains and modifications in social parasite–host systems. We give examples of how this framework can reveal the more elusive secrets of sociality by focusing on two cornerstones of sociality: communication and reproductive division of labour. Together with social parasites in other taxonomic groups, such as cuckoos in birds, social parasitism has a great potential to reveal the mechanisms and evolution of complex social groups. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The coevolutionary biology of brood parasitism: from mechanism to pattern’.

Social Insect Societies for the Optimization of Dynamic NP-Hard Problems

2011 ◽  
pp. 43-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan Hartmann ◽  
Pedro Pinto ◽  
Thomas Runkler ◽  
João Sousa
Keyword(s):  
Social Insect ◽  
Np Hard ◽  
Insect Societies ◽  
Hard Problems ◽  
Np Hard Problems

scholarly journals The evolution of social parasitism in Formica ants revealed by a global phylogeny

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marek L Borowiec ◽  
Stefan P Cover ◽  
Christian Rabeling
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
New World ◽  
Social Parasitism ◽  
Social Parasite ◽  
Colony Foundation ◽  
Parasite Diversity ◽  
Social Parasites ◽  
Evolutionary Trajectories ◽  
Competing Hypotheses ◽  
Temporary Social Parasitism

Studying the behavioral and life history transitions from a cooperative, eusocial life history to exploitative social parasitism allows for deciphering the conditions under which changes in behavior and social organization lead to diversification. The Holarctic ant genus Formica is ideally suited for studying the evolution of social parasitism because half of its 178 species are confirmed or suspected social parasites, which includes all three major classes of social parasitism known in ants. However, the life-history transitions associated with the evolution of social parasitism in this genus are largely unexplored. To test competing hypotheses regarding the origins and evolution of social parasitism, we reconstructed the first global phylogeny of Formica ants and representative formicine outgroups. The genus Formica originated in the Old World during the Oligocene (~30 Ma ago) and dispersed multiple times to the New World. Within Formica, the capacity for dependent colony foundation and temporary social parasitism arose once from a facultatively polygynous, independently colony founding ancestor. Within this parasitic clade, dulotic social parasitism evolved once from a facultatively temporary parasitic ancestor that likely practiced colony budding frequently. Permanent social parasitism evolved twice from temporary social parasitic ancestors that rarely practiced colony budding, demonstrating that obligate social parasitism can originate from different facultative parasitic backgrounds in socially polymorphic organisms. In contrast to inquiline ant species in other genera, the high social parasite diversity in Formica likely originated via allopatric speciation, highlighting the diversity of convergent evolutionary trajectories resulting in nearly identical parasitic life history syndromes.

Eusocial Insects as a Model for Understanding Altruism, Cooperation, and Levels of Selection

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heikki Helanterä
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Division Of Labor ◽  
Social Insect ◽  
Social Evolution ◽  
Inclusive Fitness ◽  
Family Structures ◽  
Major Transitions ◽  
Eusocial Insects ◽  
Insect Societies ◽  
Evolutionary Success

If the logic of natural selection is applied strictly at the level of individual production of offspring, sterile workers in insect societies are enigmatic. How can natural selection ever produce individuals that refrain from reproduction, and how are traits of such individuals that never produce offspring scrutinized and changed through natural selection? The solution to both questions is found in the family structures of insect societies. That is, the sterile helper individuals are evolutionary altruists that give up their own reproduction and instead are helping their kin reproduce and proliferate shared genes in the offspring of the fertile queen. Selection in such cases is not just a matter of individual’s direct reproduction, and instead of own offspring, the currency of the evolutionary success of sterile individuals is inclusive fitness. The concept of inclusive fitness and the process of kin selection are key to understanding the magnificent cooperation we see in insect societies, and reciprocally, insect societies are key case studies of inclusive fitness logic. In extreme cases, such as the highly advanced and sophisticated societies of ants, honeybees, and termites, the division of labor and interdependence of colony members is so complete, that it is justified to talk about a new level of evolutionary individuality. Such increases in the hierarchical complexity of life are called major transitions in evolution. We see adaptations of the colony, rather than individuals, in, e.g., their communication and group behaviors. The division of labor between morphologically differentiated queens and workers is analogous to germline-soma separation of a multicellular organism, justifying the term superorganism for the extreme cases of social lifestyle. Alongside these extreme cases, there is enormous diversity in the social lifestyles across social insect taxa, which provides a window into the balance of cooperation and conflict, and individual reproduction and helping others, in social evolution. Over the last decades, social insect research has been an area where the theoretical and empirical understanding have been developed hand in hand, together with examples of wonderful natural history, and has tremendously improved our understanding of evolution.

scholarly journals Plant defences against ants provide a pathway to social parasitism in butterflies

2015 ◽  
Vol 282 (1811) ◽  
pp. 20151111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dario Patricelli ◽  
Francesca Barbero ◽  
Andrea Occhipinti ◽  
Cinzia M. Bertea ◽  
Simona Bonelli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Cues ◽  
Gravid Female ◽  
Social Parasitism ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Origanum Vulgare ◽  
Gene Expressions ◽  
Social Parasites ◽  
Ant Colonies ◽  
Host Interactions ◽  
Main Period

Understanding the chemical cues and gene expressions that mediate herbivore–host-plant and parasite–host interactions can elucidate the ecological costs and benefits accruing to different partners in tight-knit community modules, and may reveal unexpected complexities. We investigated the exploitation of sequential hosts by the phytophagous–predaceous butterfly Maculinea arion , whose larvae initially feed on Origanum vulgare flowerheads before switching to parasitize Myrmica ant colonies for their main period of growth. Gravid female butterflies were attracted to Origanum plants that emitted high levels of the monoterpenoid volatile carvacrol, a condition that occurred when ants disturbed their roots: we also found that Origanum expressed four genes involved in monoterpene formation when ants were present, accompanied by a significant induction of jasmonates. When exposed to carvacrol, Myrmica workers upregulated five genes whose products bind and detoxify this biocide, and their colonies were more tolerant of it than other common ant genera, consistent with an observed ability to occupy the competitor-free spaces surrounding Origanum . A cost is potential colony destruction by Ma. arion , which in turn may benefit infested Origanum plants by relieving their roots of further damage. Our results suggest a new pathway, whereby social parasites can detect successive resources by employing plant volatiles to simultaneously select their initial plant food and a suitable sequential host.

scholarly journals Is diversity in worker body size important for the performance of bumble bee colonies?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob G. Holland ◽  
Shinnosuke Nakayama ◽  
Maurizio Porfiri ◽  
Oded Nov ◽  
Guy Bloch
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Bombus Terrestris ◽  
Bumble Bee ◽  
Insect Societies ◽  
Physiological Adaptations ◽  
Comparable Performance ◽  
Colony Performance ◽  
Size Diversity ◽  
Individual Effort ◽  
Bee Colonies

ABSTRACTSpecialization and plasticity are important for many forms of collective behavior, but the interplay between these factors is little understood. In insect societies, workers are often predisposed to specialize in different tasks, sometimes with morphological or physiological adaptations, facilitating a division of labor. Workers may also plastically switch between tasks or vary their effort. The degree to which predisposed specialization limits plasticity is not clear and has not been systematically tested in ecologically relevant contexts. We addressed this question in 20 freely-foraging bumble bee (Bombus terrestris) colonies by continually manipulating colonies to contain either a typically diverse or reduced (“homogeneous”) worker body size distribution, over two trials. Pooling both trials, diverse colonies did better in several indices of colony performance. The importance of body size was further demonstrated by the finding that foragers were larger than nurses even in homogeneous colonies with a very narrow body size range. However, the overall effect of size diversity stemmed mostly from one trial. In the other trial, homogeneous and diverse colonies showed comparable performance. By comparing behavioral profiles based on several thousand observations, we found evidence that workers in homogeneous colonies in this trial rescued colony performance by plastically increasing behavioral specialization and/or individual effort, compared to same-sized individuals in diverse colonies. Our results are consistent with a benefit to colonies of predisposed (size-diverse) specialists under certain conditions, but also suggest that plasticity or effort, can compensate for reduced (size-related) specialization. Thus, we suggest that an intricate interplay between specialization and plasticity is functionally adaptive in bumble bee colonies.

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