Honest and dishonest communication in social Hymenoptera

Heinze, Juergen; d’Ettorre, Patrizia

doi:10.1242/jeb.015008

Cited by 76 publications

(89 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…8 In support of the queen signal hypothesis, queen pheromones appear to vary positively with egg-laying potential across social insect species. 10 In addition, worker reproduction is indeed expected to reduce the workers' inclusive fitness on relatedness grounds and/or colony efficiency grounds, 7 so that in the presence of a fully fertile queen, workers counteract each other's reproduction by destroying worker- Among ant species, several queenspecific compounds in the cuticular hydrocarbon profiles have been found. There seems to be a general trend in using alkenes and shifts in the average chain length of the hydrocarbon profile, 29 and a high frequency of the use of 3-methyl and 3,y-dimethyl alkanes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The evolution of honest queen pheromones in insect societies

Zweden

2010

Communicative & Integrative Biology

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Addendum to: van Zweden JS, Heinze J, Boomsma JJ, d'Ettorre P. Ant queen egg-marking signals: matching deceptive laboratory simplicity with natural complexity. PLoS ONE 2009; 4:e4718; PMID: 19262683; DOI: 10.1371/journal. pone.0004718. S ocial insect workers are often capable of reproduction, but will not do so in the presence of a fertile queen. In large societies, queens are expected to produce a pheromone that honestly signals her dominance and/or fertility, to which workers respond by suppressing the development of their ovaries and by preventing other workers from reproducing (worker policing). However, what maintains the honesty of such queen pheromones is still under discussion. The explanation that an honest queen signal evolves simply because it serves the interest of all colony members does not seem to hold, since it is undermined by the fitness benefits of direct reproduction of workers at the individual level. A better explanation may be found in the idea that queen pheromones are difficult to produce for subordinate individuals, either because policing workers attack them, or because queen pheromones are intrinsically costly chemicals. Here, I discuss some of the arguments for and against these hypotheses and the evolutionary scenarios that each would lead to.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The evolution of honest queen pheromones in insect societies

Zweden

2010

Communicative & Integrative Biology

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“…This is the first step to get access to the host colony, but intraspecific social parasites need also to be recognized as the dominant, fertile females by resident workers. P. biglumis intraspecific social parasites might have enhanced proportions of branched and long-chained hydrocarbons in their signature as a means to regulate host worker reproduction through dishonest signaling, as expected for social parasites (Heinze and d'Ettorre, 2009). Up to now, little is known about fertility signals in Polistes wasps (but see Dapporto et al, 2004;Oi, 2016), and we do not know whether single compounds, or blends (such as increased proportions of branched or long-chained hydrocarbons), act as fertility signals in P. biglumis.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Divergence in Cuticular Chemical Signatures between Isolated Populations of an Intraspecific Social Parasite

Lorenzi

Azzani

2017

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Parental care is costly enough that species exist which exploit the parental care of other individuals to rear their own brood, as social parasites do among social insects. Intraspecific, facultative social parasites use the nest and worker force of another colony of the same species to rear their own young as a reproductive strategy alternative to independent nest foundation. Intraspecific parasites face barriers similar to those of interspecific social parasites: they must bypass host nestmate recognition abilities and keep host workers under control. In the present study, we investigate the cuticular chemical signature of Polistes biglumis paper wasps when they behave as intraspecific social parasites and invade conspecific colonies. We performed our analysis on three geographically separated populations, which differ in their social structure; in one population foundresses regularly produce workers, whereas in the others they rarely do. We tested whether the chemical signature of females which parasitize conspecific colonies resembles that of females who found their colonies, and if this effect is similar among populations with high and low numbers of workers. Our results show that in the two populations where foundresses produce virtually no workers, the hydrocarbon signatures of intraspecific social parasites were not chemically distinct from those of the foundresses. In contrast, in the population where foundresses usually produce workers, the hydrocarbon signatures of intraspecific social parasites had a significantly larger proportion of long-chained and branched hydrocarbons than those of foundresses. These characteristics may have evolved in that population to facilitate parasite exploitation of the host workforce, as long-chained and branched hydrocarbons are relevant as recognition and fertility cues. The lack of workers in the other populations may have relaxed the selection pressure that host workers impose on the chemical signature of intraspecific social parasites.

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“…Then, a key factor allowing to distinguish manipulation from honest signaling is the cost of resistance: if resistance is rather costless and no arms race is detected, queen influence is expected to more likely be honest signaling (Keller and Nonacs, 1993). In particular, queen influence via pheromones is thought to be rather costless to resist and is thus considered more likely to be honest signaling than manipulation (Keller and Nonacs, 1993) as is increasingly supported by the evidence (e.g., Heinze andd'Ettorre, 2009, van Zweden et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stable eusociality via maternal manipulation when resistance is costless

González-Forero

2015

Preprint

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In many eusocial species, queens use pheromones to influence offspring to express worker phenotypes. While evidence suggests that queen pheromones are honest signals of the queen's reproductive health, here I show that queen's honest signaling can result from ancestral maternal manipulation. I develop a mathematical model to study the coevolution of maternal manipulation, offspring resistance to manipulation, and maternal resource allocation. I assume that (1) maternal manipulation causes offspring to be workers against offspring's interests; (2) offspring can resist at no direct cost, as is thought to be the case with pheromonal manipulation; and (3) the mother chooses how much resource to allocate to fertility and maternal care. In the coevolution of these traits, I find that maternal care decreases, thereby increasing the benefit that offspring obtain from help, which in the long run eliminates selection for resistance. Consequently, ancestral maternal manipulation yields stable eusociality despite costless resistance. Additionally, ancestral manipulation in the long run becomes honest signaling that induces offspring to help. These results indicate that both eusociality and its commonly associated queen honest signaling can be likely to originate from ancestral manipulation.

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Honest and dishonest communication in social Hymenoptera

Cited by 76 publications

References 54 publications

The evolution of honest queen pheromones in insect societies

The evolution of honest queen pheromones in insect societies

Divergence in Cuticular Chemical Signatures between Isolated Populations of an Intraspecific Social Parasite

Stable eusociality via maternal manipulation when resistance is costless

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