Sociality in Bees

Wcislo, William T.; Fewell, Jennifer H.

doi:10.1017/9781107338319.004

Cited by 34 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 159 publications

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“…In CPF species, guarding the nest to deter predators and protect offspring is traded off against foraging. Adults may increase guarding time as by-product mutualism just by increasing proximity to other nests (Wcislo and Fewell, 2017). The time offspring are guarded increases with any temporal mismatch in visits by parents even in the absence of turn-taking.…”

Section: Sociality Buffers Against Biotic Hazardsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The time offspring are guarded increases with any temporal mismatch in visits by parents even in the absence of turn-taking. Shared nest guarding might thus be one of the earliest benefits of sociality in species facing these constraints and may not require any specific trait besides an increase in tolerance among parents (Wcislo and Fewell, 2017).…”

Section: Sociality Buffers Against Biotic Hazardsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Similar to the effects of limitation of food resources or the territories that sustain them, shortage in nesting site availability might promote sociality. The primitive way of nesting in bees depends on the excavation of ground nests (Wcislo and Fewell, 2017). In many habitats, soil characteristics constrain the possibility of excavating to suitable patches, which is thought to have led same-generation individuals to share a nest, cooperating in nest excavation and guarding.…”

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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Section: Sociality Buffers Against Biotic Hazardsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Sociality Buffers Against Biotic Hazardsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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“…Yet, despite their prominence in evolutionary biology, surprising little is known about the selective forces that have driven the great diversity of colony life-history strategies observed in social insects (Heinze, Kellner & Seal, 2017; Holldobler & Wilson, 1990; Hunt & Toth, 2017; Wcislo & Fewell, 2017). Certain ecological forces, like reduced foundress success due to harsh ecological conditions (e.g., intense competition) (Bartz & Holldobler, 1982; Bernasconi & Strassmann, 1999; Nonacs, 2001) or worker reproduction enabled by longer growth seasons (reviewed in Wcislo & Fewell, 2017) have been rigorously evaluated in the literature. Such studies have enhanced our understanding about the environmental forces that cause group formation in general and some aspects of colony life-history too (e.g., worker reproduction, cofoundress associations).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such studies have enhanced our understanding about the environmental forces that cause group formation in general and some aspects of colony life-history too (e.g., worker reproduction, cofoundress associations). Yet, it is perennially noted that a broader conceptual or theoretical framework to organize the evolution of colony life histories in social insects is still missing (Bourke & Franks, 1995; Heinze et al, 2017; Wcislo & Fewell, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Foundress Number, But Not Queen Size or Boldness, Predicts Colony Life-History in Wild Paper Wasps

Wright

Fisher

Nerone

et al. 2019

Preprint

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3Colonies of social insects exhibit a spectacular variety of life histories. Here we documented the 1 4 degree of variation in colony life-history traits, mostly related to productivity, in two species of 1 5 wild paper wasps. We then tested for associations between colony life-history traits to look for 1 6 trade-offs or positively associated syndromes, and examined whether individual differences in 1 7 the behavioral tendencies of foundresses (Polistes metricus) or the number of cofoundresses (P. 1 8 fuscatus) influenced colony life-history. The majority of our measures of colony life-history 1 9 were positively related, indicating no obvious resource allocation trade-offs. Instead, the positive 2 0association of traits into a productivity syndrome appears to be driven by differences in queen or 2 1 microhabitat quality. Syndrome structure differed only marginally between species. Queen 2 2 boldness and body size were not associated with colony life-history in P. metricus. Colonies 2 3 initiated by multiple P. fuscatus foundresses were generally more productive, and this advantage 2 4was approximately proportional to the number of cofoundresses. These findings demonstrate that 2 5 colony life-history traits can be associated together much like individual life-history traits, and 2 6 the associations seen here convey that differences in overall productivity drive between-colony 2 7 differences in life-history. 2 8

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Toward a Functional Trait Approach to Bee Ecology

Ostwald,

Gonzalez,

Chang

et al. 2024

Ecology and Evolution

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Functional traits offer an informative framework for understanding ecosystem functioning and responses to global change. Trait data are abundant in the literature, yet many communities of practice lack data standards for trait measurement and data sharing, hindering data reuse that could reveal large‐scale patterns in functional and evolutionary ecology. Here, we present a roadmap toward community data standards for trait‐based research on bees, including a protocol for effective trait data sharing. We also review the state of bee functional trait research, highlighting common measurement approaches and knowledge gaps. These studies were overwhelmingly situated in agroecosystems and focused predominantly on morphological and behavioral traits, while phenological and physiological traits were infrequently measured. Studies investigating climate change effects were also uncommon. Along with our review, we present an aggregated morphological trait dataset compiled from our focal studies, representing more than 1600 bee species globally and serving as a template for standardized bee trait data presentation. We highlight obstacles to harmonizing this trait data, especially ambiguity in trait classes, methodology, and sampling metadata. Our framework for trait data sharing leverages common data standards to resolve these ambiguities and ensure interoperability between datasets, promoting accessibility and usability of trait data to advance bee ecological research.

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Sociality in Bees

Cited by 34 publications

References 159 publications

Catalyzing Transitions to Sociality: Ecology Builds on Parental Care

Catalyzing Transitions to Sociality: Ecology Builds on Parental Care

Foundress Number, But Not Queen Size or Boldness, Predicts Colony Life-History in Wild Paper Wasps

Toward a Functional Trait Approach to Bee Ecology

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