Social contracts in wasp societies

• Published in: Nature (London) 1992-10, Vol.359 (6398), p.823-825
• Main Authors: Reeve, Hudson K, Nonacs, Peter
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal behavior; Animal ethology; Bees; Biological and medical sciences; Eggs; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humanities and Social Sciences; Hymenoptera; Invertebrates; letter; multidisciplinary; Polistes fuscatus; Protozoa. Invertebrata; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Reproduction; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Vespidae
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/359823a0

THE stability of social groups requires that conflicts among group members somehow be resolved. Recent models predict that sub-ordinates may be allowed limited reproduction by dominant colony-mates as an inducement to stay and aid dominants 1– For such 'social contracts' to be evolutionarily stable, attempted reproductive cheating by dominants must be punishable 3 . In the eusocial paper wasp, Polistes fuscatus , subordinate queens that co-found nests with dominant queens usually disappear after the first workers emerge, so subordinates lay most of their reproductive-destined eggs just before worker emergence. Thus subordinates should be very sensitive to reproductive cheating during the latter period but relatively insensitive when worker-destined eggs are laid. Here we find in a series of egg-removal experiments designed to mimic egg-eating that subordinates do not change their aggressiveness when worker-destined eggs are removed, but that they greatly increase their aggression when reproductive-destined eggs are removed, especially when the queens are of similar size.