Beyond promiscuity: mate-choice commitments in social breeding

Obligate eusociality with distinct caste phenotypes has evolved from strictly monogamous sub-social ancestors in ants, some bees, some wasps and some termites. This implies that no lineage reached the most advanced form of social breeding, unless helpers at the nest gained indirect fitness values vi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological sciences 2013-03, Vol.368 (1613), p.20120050-20120050
Main Author: Boomsma, Jacobus J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation, Biological - physiology
Animals
Biological Evolution
Commitment
Conflict
Cooperation
Cooperative Breeding
Eusociality
Female
Fertility - physiology
Formicidae
Genetic Fitness - genetics
Hymenoptera
Insecta - physiology
Isoptera
Male
Mating Preference, Animal - physiology
Models, Biological
Monogamy
Review
Sexual Behavior, Animal - physiology
Species Specificity
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Summary:Obligate eusociality with distinct caste phenotypes has evolved from strictly monogamous sub-social ancestors in ants, some bees, some wasps and some termites. This implies that no lineage reached the most advanced form of social breeding, unless helpers at the nest gained indirect fitness values via siblings that were identical to direct fitness via offspring. The complete lack of re-mating promiscuity equalizes sex-specific variances in reproductive success. Later, evolutionary developments towards multiple queen-mating retained lifetime commitment between sexual partners, but reduced male variance in reproductive success relative to female's, similar to the most advanced vertebrate cooperative breeders. Here, I (i) discuss some of the unique and highly peculiar mating system adaptations of eusocial insects; (ii) address ambiguities that remained after earlier reviews and extend the monogamy logic to the evolution of soldier castes; (iii) evaluate the evidence for indirect fitness benefits driving the dynamics of (in)vertebrate cooperative breeding, while emphasizing the fundamental differences between obligate eusociality and cooperative breeding; (iv) infer that lifetime commitment is a major driver towards higher levels of organization in bodies, colonies and mutualisms. I argue that evolutionary informative definitions of social systems that separate direct and indirect fitness benefits facilitate transparency when testing inclusive fitness theory.
ISSN:0962-8436
1471-2970
DOI:10.1098/rstb.2012.0050