Extended Parental Care in Communal Social Groups

Forbes, Stephen H.; Adams, Rachelle M. M.; Bitney, Charla; Kukuk, Penelope F.

doi:10.1673/031.002.2201

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 19 publications

(9 reference statements)

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“…Offspring may still depend on adult presence for protection, however, even if they do not need to be fed, as is true for mass provisioning species in which adults fully provision each brood cell before laying an egg (Queller 1994;Eickwort et al 1996;Kukuk et al 1998;Forbes et al 2002;Smith et al 2003). Extending AFR models beyond progressive provisioners offers the chance to focus on the role of offspring defense in favoring the evolution of sociality (Lin and Michener 1972).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Extending AFR models beyond progressive provisioners offers the chance to focus on the role of offspring defense in favoring the evolution of sociality (Lin and Michener 1972). In mass provisioning species, adults fully provision each brood cell before laying an egg, but they often remain at and defend their nests (Queller 1994;Eickwort et al 1996;Kukuk et al 1998;Forbes et al 2002;Smith et al 2003). The massprovisioning bee family Halictidae is a key taxon for understanding social evolution.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Survival and productivity benefits to social nesting in the sweat bee Megalopta genalis (Hymenoptera: Halictidae)

Smith

Wcislo

O’Donnell

2007

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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Facultatively solitary and eusocial species allow for direct tests of the benefits of group living. We used the facultatively social sweat bee Megalopta genalis to test several benefits of group living. We surveyed natural nests modified for observation in the field weekly for 5 weeks in 2003. First, we demonstrate that social and solitary nesting are alternative behaviors, rather than different points on one developmental trajectory. Next, we show that solitary nests suffered significantly higher rates of nest failure than did social nests. Nest failure apparently resulted from solitary foundress mortality and subsequent brood orphanage. Social nests had significantly higher productivity, measured as new brood cells provisioned during the study, than did solitary nests. After accounting for nest failures, per capita productivity did not change with group size. Our results support key predictions of Assured Fitness Return models, suggesting such indirect fitness benefits favor eusocial nesting in M. genalis. We compared field collections of natural nests to our observation nest data to show that without accounting for nest failures, M. genalis appear to suffer a per capita productivity decrease with increasing group size. Calculating per capita productivity from collected nests without accounting for the differential probabilities of survival across group sizes leads to an overestimate of solitary nest productivity.

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