UNIT 5 DAY 5 - Kin Selection & Altruism (Eusocial Insects)

Question 1

hymenopteran insects

Answer 1

wasps, bees, ants

Question 2

females

Answer 2

• diploid
• females lay haploid eggs (by meiosis)
• egg fertilised, develops into diploid females

Question 3

males

Answer 3

• haploid
• not fertilised, haploid male (by mitosis)

Question 4

Coefficient of relatedness female

Answer 4

daughter: 1/2
Son: 1/2
Mother: 1/2
Father: 1/2
Sister: 3/4
Brother: 1/4

Question 5

Coefficient of relatedness Male

Answer 5

daughter: 1
son: n/a
mother: 1
father: n/a
sister: 1/2
brother: 1/2

Question 5

Hamiltons explanation for repeated evolution of eusociality in hymenopterans

Answer 5

• female works, being more closely related to their sisters than own offspring
• more likely to evolve reproductive altruism than would females with standard diploid genetics

Question 6

hyper-relatedness of sisters (r=3/4)

Answer 6

• only holds true if a queen mates with a single male (monandry)
  –> different fathers (polyandry) would propagate different DNA

Question 7

queen wasps suppress rebellion of workers

Answer 7

• by releasing pheromones to sterilse them

Question 8

primitively eusocial species

Answer 8

• no morphological differences
• controlled by aggression from queen
• controlled by top down (queen)
• small colony (less than 100)

Question 9

highly eusocial species

Answer 9

• physical differences have emerged
• queen controls breeding by releasing pheromones
• larger colonies
• self organised (labour controlled from bottom up, divided up independently)

Question 10

Gadagkar studied ‘Ropoldia Marginata’ (wasps)

Answer 10

• native to india
• old world, tropical, primitively eusocial, polistine wasp abundantly distributed
• contains both primitively and highly eusocial species

Question 11

eclose

Answer 11

• sons and daughters emerges from cocoons as adults, males leave nests soon after eclosion, females can stay their whole lives

Question 12

serial polygyny

Answer 12

• mating with one female at a time but many in succession

Question 13

ethology

Answer 13

studies of animal behaviour

Question 14

volatile

Answer 14

subject to change

Question 15

Hamiltions

Answer 15

-haploid-diploid system, more related to the queen, higher relatedness, links to higher eusociality, less reproduction

Question 16

E.O. Wilson

Answer 16

• if queen was polyandry, the relatedness between offspring will be significantly lower
• other females lay eggs, eusociality break down

Question 17

Hughes

Answer 17

• examined phylogeny
• polyandry doesn’t occur until much later, think that the haploid-diploid phenomena.

Question 18

nonvolatile

Answer 18

stable

Question 19

normal queen behaviour

Answer 19

• docile sitters
• nonaggressive, non-interactive

Question 20

when queen removed

Answer 20

• aggressive behaviour increases in colony due to dominance behaviour of single worker (the PQ), later becomes docile queen

Question 21

queen transfers pheromone through relay mechanism or through direct contact with queen

Answer 21

• PQ realises absence when her reserve of the pheromone depleats
• releases pheromone by rubbing stomach

Question 22

workers organise non reproductive activities themselves

Answer 22

• when queen is present/absent

Question 23

non observable differences in PQs

Answer 23

• they are unchallenged when queen not present

Question 24

highly eusocial

Answer 24

- because nonaggressive queens, pheromones, decentralised organisation of non-reproductive activities

Question 25

pheromone

Answer 25

- odour produced by members of the same species that influence physiology and behaviour

Question 26

female meerkats injected with contraceptive

Answer 26

- dominant females gain more weight if other females are injected with contraceptive