The evolution of complexity in social organization—A model using dominance-subordinate behavior in two social wasp species

Abstract

Dominance and subordinate behaviours are important ingredients in the social organizations of group living animals. Behavioural observations on the two eusocial species Ropalidia marginata and Ropalidia cyathiformis suggest varying complexities in their social systems. The queen of R. cyathiformis is an aggressive individual who usually holds the top position in the dominance hierarchy although she does not necessarily show the maximum number of acts of dominance, while the R. marginata queen rarely shows aggression and usually does not hold the top position in the dominance hierarchy of her colony. In R. marginata, more workers are involved in dominancesubordinate interactions as compared to R. cyathiformis. These differences are reflected in the distribution of dominance-subordinate interactions among the hierarchically ranked individuals in both the species. The percentage of dominance interactions decrease gradually with hierarchical ranks in R. marginata while in R. cyathiformis it first increases and then decreases. We use an agent-based model to investigate the underlying mechanism that could give rise to the observed patterns for both the species. The model assumes, besides some non-interacting individuals, that the interaction probabilities of the agents depend on their pre-differentiated winning abilities. Our simulations show that if the queen takes up a strategy of being involved in a moderate number of dominance interactions, one could get the pattern similar to R. cyathiformis, while taking up the strategy of very low interactions by the queen could lead to the pattern of R. marginata. We infer that both the species follow a common interaction pattern, while the differences in their social organization are due to the slight changes in queen as well as worker strategies. These changes in strategies are expected to accompany the evolution of more complex societies from simpler ones.

Synapsin IIb as a functional marker of submissive behavior

“…Interactions among members of a given animal community are governed by each individuals’ standing in the social hierarchy 1 2 . Based on the competition for territory, food and mating partner, two opposite behavioral types can be described: dominance and submissiveness 2 3 4 .…”

The Right Tools for the Job: Cooperative Breeding Theory and an Evaluation of the Methodological Approaches to Understanding the Evolution and Maintenance of Sociality

“…The size, structure and composition of these groups can vary both within and between species, from pair-bonding monogamous partners (Kleiman, 2011;Servedio et al, 2013) to large and highly complex societies exhibiting social hierarchies and division of labor (Duffy and Macdonald, 2010;Nandi et al, 2013). Such variation in social structure is intriguing as it suggests that there may be a great diversity of underlying social, ecological or life history factors that influence the evolution of stable groups and their maintenance over many generations.…”