Midterm Flashcards
(1) Which origin of the Western honeybee is thought to be correct?
e) The origin still has not been satisfactorily determined.
(2) Wilson (1990) defines success of a taxon as:
c) Longevity of the entire clade through geological time.
(3) Wilson (1990) defines dominance of a taxon as:
c) Having a high abundance, particularly in terms of biomass and its impact on the biota.
(4) Wilson (1990) identifies which of the following to be the key advantage of colonial life:
a) Series-parallel operations.
b) Higher premiums paid to aggressive, dominant behaviour.
c) Superior resource inheritance.
d) More efficient homeostasis.
e)** All of the above.
) Which objection to kin selection based on elevated relatedness for the evolution of eusociality in the
Hymenoptera was initially raised in response to Hamilton’s hypothesis?
a) Multiple foundress associations of females of the same gen
b) Multiple mating by queens occurs in some species of eusocial Hymenoptera.
(6) What is the accepted series of basic steps shown by wasps on the “social ladder”?
b) Prey first; Nest first/single prey; Nest first/multiple prey; Progressive provisioning.
7) In the diagram below, of colony growth in Bombus atratus, two of the colonies grow at a slower rate than
the others. This is because:
d) Diploid males are being produced.
(8) Bumble bee queens emerge from overwintering in the spring. At this time, queens develop their ovaries and
search for a nest site in which to start a colony. Sarro et al. (2022) found that with Bombus vosnesenskii
queens:
d) Ovary development and nest-searching occur independently.
(9) An imaginal disc is:
a) A sac-like epithelial structure found inside the larva of insects that undergo
metamorphosis.
(10) Hilltopping:
b) Occurs in many species of insects.
d) Is when many males congregate on the top of a hill to attract females.
(11) Male bumble bee mating strategies include:
perching
d) patrolling.
The figure below shows the chromosomes of the termite Nasutitermes longipennis in meiosis. The distinctive
ring structure:
is caused by a series of reciprocal translocation involving a number of non-homologous
chromosomes.
(13) The ovarian ground plan hypothesis proposes that:
a) that reproductive controls of a solitary ancestor have been co-opted during social evolution,
facilitating the division of labor among social insect workers.
b) was originally proposed by Mary Jane West-Eberhard.
c) assumes phenotypic plasticity.
(14) The modal haploid chromosome number (N) for bumble bees (Bombus spp.) is:
18
During the exponential growth phase of a social insect colony (bumble bee, for example), in terms of
productivity (calories/day) there is:
b) increasing returns to scale.
(16) Which is a potential cost of polydomy in ants:
c) spread of infection between nests.
(17) As the season progresses the average size of workers in a bumble bee colony is expected to:
c) increase.
(18) One suggested proximate cost of polyandry by queens in eusocial hymenopteran species is:
c) fitness costs for search of additional mates.
(19) In termites trophallaxis and coprophagy:
a) allows the direct or indirect transmission of microorganisms among workers and other castes.
Adult Yellow jackets (Vespula germanica) only take up sugar-rich liquid for their daily diet. Why is it
important to filter the fluid before it is absorbed by the gut?
a) these fluids are usually collected from sources with high amounts of various particles, such as fruit
flesh or shards of bark, etc.
b) the gut is constricted by having to pass through the “wasp waist” which could become blocked.
Multiple mating by queens is called
Polyandry
Multiple nests per colony is called
Polydomy
Multiple queens per colony is called
Polygyny
What other mechanism (also proposed by W.D. Hamilton) can also account for female
biased sex ratios (e.g. 3:1) in the Hymenoptera apart from kin-selection?
Local Mate Competition
e) What is the difference between “one-piece” and “multi-piece” termites?
One-piece = live in log or tree for their whole colony life, never leave;
Multi-piece = forage outside colony, bulked mounds.
f) What is an “alate”
Winged sexual reproductives of an ant or termite.
g) What is “claustral colony founding”?
Ant queen will start her nest in a concealed chamber (e.g. underground), never leave to
forage *& break down (histolyse) her wing muscles to feed her first brood larvae.
What selective pressure is most likely to have favored the evolution of claustral colony
founding?
Risk of predation
i) What are “nanitic” workers?
The first brood of workers in a eusocial insect colony.
j) What is the difference between “pollen-storers” and “pocket-makers”?
Found in bumble bees. Pollen-storers store pollen in pots (often old cocoons) and feed
larvae individually with a mixture of pollen & honey. Pocket-markers make pockets in the
sides of clumps of larvae and supply the larvae en masse with pollen pushed into the
pockets.
k) What is the “subsocial” route for the evolution of eusociality?
Daughters remain with their mothers and help rear their brothers and sisters.
What is worker policing?
Workers will identify and destroy eggs laid by other workers.
