Reproductive regulation in an orchid bee: social context, fertility and chemical signalling

Andrade-Silva, Aline Candida Ribeiro; Nascimento, Fábio Santos do

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2015.05.004

Cited by 23 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…Both dominant and subordinate females are fertile, mated, and lay eggs; however, dominant females engage in oophagy, replacing the eggs of subordinates with their own, achieving complete or nearly complete reproductive dominance. As in other Euglossa species, if the mother has died, two sisters can form a dominant/subordinate relationship [15]. In social nests, E. dilemma subordinates forage, while the dominant female remains in the nest.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Sociality emerges from solitary behaviours and reproductive plasticity in the orchid beeEuglossa dilemma

Saleh

Ramírez

2019

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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The evolution of eusociality and sterile worker castes represents a major transition in the history of life. Despite this, little is known about the mechanisms involved in the initial transition from solitary to social behaviour. It has been hypothesized that plasticity from ancestral solitary life cycles was coopted to create queen and worker castes in insect societies. Here, we tested this hypothesis by examining gene expression involved in the transition from solitary to social behaviour in the orchid bee Euglossa dilemma . To this end, we conducted observations that allowed us to classify bees into four distinct categories of solitary and social behaviour. Then, by sequencing brain and ovary transcriptomes from these behavioural phases, we identified gene expression changes overlapping with socially associated genes across multiple eusocial lineages. We find that genes involved in solitary E. dilemma ovarian plasticity overlap extensively with genes showing differential expression between fertile and sterile workers—or between queens and workers in other eusocial bees. We also find evidence that sociality in E. dilemma reflects gene expression patterns involved in solitary foraging and non-foraging nest care behaviours. Our results provide strong support for the hypothesis that eusociality emerges from plasticity found across solitary life cycles.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Sociality emerges from solitary behaviours and reproductive plasticity in the orchid beeEuglossa dilemma

Saleh

Ramírez

2019

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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“…For example, queen tergal gland secretions (Wossler & Crewe, 1999) and queen mandibular pheromone (Hoover, Keeling, Winston, & Slessor, 2003;Ronai, Oldroyd, & Vergoz, 2016c;Ronai, Oldroyd, et al, 2016a) have both been shown to limit ovarian development in honeybee workers (genus Apis), while in the carpenter ant Camponotus floridanus, worker-laid eggs experimentally marked with the queen-derived surface hydrocarbons were significantly less likely to be destroyed by other workers (Endler et al, 2004). Pheromonal suppression of worker reproduction has also been documented in primitively eusocial species, including the polistine wasps Polistes dominula (Sledge, Boscaro, & Turillazzi, 2001) and Ropalidia marginata (Bhadra et al, 2010;Mitra, 2014;Saha et al, 2012), the euglossine bee Euglossa melanotricha (Andrade-Silva & Nascimento, 2015), and several species in Bombus (Ayasse & Jarau, 2014;Holman, 2014).…”

Section: Pheromonal Suppression By Queens or Dominant Individuals Hasmentioning

confidence: 99%

The evolution of queen control over worker reproduction in the social Hymenoptera

Olejarz

Veller

Nowak

2017

Ecology and Evolution

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A trademark of eusocial insect species is reproductive division of labor, in which workers forego their own reproduction while the queen produces almost all offspring. The presence of the queen is key for maintaining social harmony, but the specific role of the queen in the evolution of eusociality remains unclear. A long‐discussed scenario is that a queen either behaviorally or chemically sterilizes her workers. However, the demographic and ecological conditions that enable such manipulation are still debated. We study a simple model of evolutionary dynamics based on haplodiploid genetics. Our model is set in the commonly observed case where workers have lost the ability to lay female (diploid) eggs by mating, but retain the ability to lay male (haploid) eggs. We consider a mutation that acts in a queen, causing her to control the reproductive behavior of her workers. Our mathematical analysis yields precise conditions for the evolutionary emergence and stability of queen‐induced worker sterility. These conditions do not depend on the queen's mating frequency. We find that queen control is always established if it increases colony reproductive efficiency, but can evolve even if it decreases colony efficiency. We further derive the conditions under which queen control is evolutionarily stable against invasion by mutant workers who have recovered the ability to lay male eggs.

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“…Dominance is an important factor determining reproduction in many eusocial insects including bumblebees because behavioral and reproductive dominance is typically achieved by means of overt aggression and agonistic interactions (Andrade-Silva and Nascimento, 2015;Bloch et al, 1996;Duchateau and Velthuis, 1989;Geva 5 et al, 2005;Monnin and Peeters, 1999;Roseler, 1991;Sasaki et al, 2016;Van Doorn, 1989;van Doorn and Heringa, 1986) Earlier studies on JH, dominance and aggression in bumblebees produced somewhat conflicting conclusions. In B.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Juvenile hormone interacts with multiple factors to modulate aggression and dominance in groups of orphan bumble bee (Bombus terrestris) workers

Pandey

Motro

Bloch

2019

Preprint

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Juvenile hormone (JH) is a key regulator of insect development and reproduction. Given that JH commonly affects adult insect fertility, it has been hypothesized to also regulate behaviors such as dominance and aggression that are associated with reproduction. We tested this hypothesis in the bumble bee Bombus terrestris for which JH has been shown to be the major gonadotropin. We used the allatoxin Precocene-I (P-I) to reduce hemolymph JH titers and replacement therapy with the natural JH to revert this effect. In small orphan groups of workers with similar body size but mixed treatment, P-I treated bees showed lower aggressiveness, oogenesis, and dominance rank compared with control and replacement therapy treated bees. In similar groups in which all bees were treated similarly, there was a clear dominance hierarchy, even in P-I and replacement therapy treatment groups in which the bees showed similar levels of ovarian activation. In a similar experiment in which bees differed in body size, larger bees were more likely to be dominant despite their similar JH treatment and ovarian state. In the last experiment, we show that JH manipulation does not affect dominance rank in groups that had already established a stable dominance hierarchy. These findings solve previous ambiguities concerning whether or not JH affects dominance in bumble bees. JH positively affects dominance, but bees with similar levels of JH can nevertheless establish dominance hierarchies. Thus, multiple factors including JH, body size, and previous experience affect dominance and aggression in social bumble bees.

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Reproductive regulation in an orchid bee: social context, fertility and chemical signalling

Cited by 23 publications

References 50 publications

Sociality emerges from solitary behaviours and reproductive plasticity in the orchid beeEuglossa dilemma

Sociality emerges from solitary behaviours and reproductive plasticity in the orchid beeEuglossa dilemma

The evolution of queen control over worker reproduction in the social Hymenoptera

Juvenile hormone interacts with multiple factors to modulate aggression and dominance in groups of orphan bumble bee (Bombus terrestris) workers

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