ISSN:
0066-4170
Source:
Annual Reviews Electronic Back Volume Collection 1932-2001ff
Topics:
Biology
Notes:
Abstract Reproductive-skew theory can be broadly divided into transactional models, in which reproduction is shared among group members in return for some fitness benefit, and tug-of-war models, in which reproductive sharing arises solely from an inability of each group member to fully control the others. For small-colony social insects in which complete reproductive control by a single individual is plausible, transactional-concession models account, better than any other existing model, for observed relationships between each of the dependent variables of skew, changes in reproductive partitioning over time, group size, and within-group aggression, and each of the predictor variables of genetic relatedness, ecological constraints on solitary breeding, and benefits of group living. An extension of transactional-concession models via the "workers-as-a-collective-dominant" model potentially offers new insights into some of the most striking reproductive patterns in large-colony eusocial Hymenopteran species, from the loss of worker capacity to produce female offspring to patterns of skew and aggression in polygynous societies.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ento.46.1.347
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