Sociality in Aphids and Thrips

Abbot, Patrick; Chapman, Tom

doi:10.1017/9781107338319.007

Cited by 20 publications

(13 citation statements)

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“…Although the emergence of complex societies has been identified as one of the major transitions in evolutionary biology (Maynard Smith & Szathmary ), it is frequently unclear what is meant by ‘social complexity’ and definitions vary. Studies of eusocial insects and cooperative vertebrates commonly identify complex societies as those where there is reproductive suppression of subordinate females, extensive alloparental care and a division of labour among females which is often associated with functional divergence in development between breeders and non‐breeding workers or between different categories of workers (Wilson ; Bourke & Franks ; Anderson & McShea ; Abbot & Chapman ; Korb & Thorne ). In contrast, studies of social mammals (and of simian primates and cetaceans, in particular) characterise complex societies as those where social relationships between group members are individually differentiated and competitive interactions, linear dominance hierarchies, reciprocal cooperation and alliances between group members are common (Byrne & Whiten ; Freeberg et al .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social complexity and kinship in animal societies

2018

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Studies of eusocial invertebrates regard complex societies as those where there is a clear division of labour and extensive cooperation between breeders and helpers. In contrast, studies of social mammals identify complex societies as those where differentiated social relationships influence access to resources and reproductive opportunities. We show here that, while traits associated with social complexity of the first kind occur in social mammals that live in groups composed of close relatives, traits associated with the complexity of social relationships occur where average kinship between female group members is low. These differences in the form of social complexity appear to be associated with variation in brain size and probably reflect contrasts in the extent of conflicts of interest between group members. Our results emphasise the limitations of any unitary concept of social complexity and show that variation in average kinship between group members has far-reaching consequences for animal societies.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social complexity and kinship in animal societies

2018

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“…Probably for that reason, most gall-forming aphids produce a large amount of powdery hydrophobic wax from specialized epidermal glands, thereby forming wax-coated 'honeydew balls' to protect colony members from wetting [6][7][8]. In some social aphids, soldier nymphs actively dispose of the wax-coated honeydew balls and other wastes through openings on their gall to keep their habitat clean [6,9,10]. In several social aphids that form completely closed galls, the gall inner wall is specialized for & 2018 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water-repellent plant surface structure induced by gall-forming insects for waste management

2018

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Many animals and plants have evolved elaborate water-repellent microstructures on their surface, which often play important roles in their ecological adaptation. Here, we report a unique type of water-repellent structure on a plant surface, which develops as an insect-induced plant morphology in a social context. Some social aphids form galls on their host plant, in which they produce large amounts of hydrophobic wax. Excreted honeydew is coated by the powdery wax to form ‘honeydew balls’, which are actively disposed by soldier nymphs through an opening on their gall. These activities are enabled by a highly water-repellent inner gall surface, and we discovered that this surface is covered with dense trichomes that are not found on normal plant surfaces. The trichomes are coated by fine particles of the insect-produced wax, thereby realizing a high water repellency with a cooperative interaction between aphids and plants. The plant leaves on which the gall is formed often exhibit patchy areas with dense trichomes, representing an ectopic expression of the insect-induced plant morphology. In the pouch-shaped closed galls of a related social aphid species, by contrast, the inner surface was not covered with trichomes. Our findings provide a convincing example of how the extended phenotype of an animal, expressed in a plant, plays a pivotal role in maintaining sociality.

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“…Groups are founded by unrelated females, and nests are not gall structures but constructed by gluing plant parts together. These groups share the costs of nest construction and enjoy benefits for offspring against aridity of the environment (Gilbert, 2014;Abbot and Chapman, 2017).…”

Section: Sociality Buffers Against Harsh Environmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nevertheless, coevolution with predators and parasites might have driven their transitions to sociality to some extent as well. For instance, despite having evolved a concealed mode of life inside gall structures, thrips and aphids suffer from attacks by specialist predators and parasitoids (Crespi et al, 1997;Abbot and Chapman, 2017). The evolution of thrip eusociality from a family-living ancestor has therefore been linked to the presence of specific gall invading species (Crespi et al, 2004).…”

Section: Sociality Buffers Against Biotic Hazardsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In social aphids and thrips, limitation of suitable sites to form galls has been suggested to favor parasocial associations between adult females that cofound galls (Kiester and Strates, 1984;Abbot and Chapman, 2017). In snapping shrimp, the sponges where these animals live are in short supply (Macdonald et al, 2006), making it difficult for juveniles to find unoccupied hosts.…”

Section: Limited Breeding Possibilities Lead To Socialitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Catalyzing Transitions to Sociality: Ecology Builds on Parental Care

Socias‐Martínez

Kappeler

2019

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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In the context of social evolution research, great emphasis on kin-selected benefits has led to an understanding of parental care as one of the activities that helpers can perform in extended cooperative families. Nevertheless, this perspective might have precluded a deeper understanding of the implications of parental care for social evolution. We argue that parental care is a broader set of processes playing a key role both before and during the emergence of sociality. The care system of a species may be understood as the result of long coevolutionary processes with environmental pressures during presocial stages that impact transitions to sociality. We evaluate the present framework against evidence on the evolution of parental care and transitions toward sociality in subsocial and parasocial vertebrate and invertebrate species. Moreover, following previous evidence for the importance of modes of foraging and resting, we structure our inquiry by classifying societies into three types. Our results suggest that in "central place foragers" and "fortress defenders", ecological factors promoting the evolution of parental care foster a set of coevolutionary feedback loops resulting in increases in parental effort and offspring needs. Offspring needs alone or in combination with limited breeding options enhance the relative benefits of positive social interactions, catalyzing transitions to sociality. In "itinerant foragers", sociality is associated with colonizing new niches. Changes in predation pressure entail changes in the modes of care or selection for certain types of care already present in solitary ancestors. Further changes in the form of collective defense may be needed for permanent sociality to evolve. We conclude that there is evidence that social transitions to different types of societies are the result of long coevolutionary processes between environmental pressures and the care systems in a wide variety of taxa. Therefore, advances in the study of the origins of sociality may require further investigation of parental care evolution in solitary ancestors of today's social species.

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Sociality in Aphids and Thrips

Cited by 20 publications

References 119 publications

Social complexity and kinship in animal societies

Social complexity and kinship in animal societies

Water-repellent plant surface structure induced by gall-forming insects for waste management

Catalyzing Transitions to Sociality: Ecology Builds on Parental Care

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