Impact of helpers on colony productivity in a primitively eusocial bee

Détails

Ressource 1Télécharger: BIB_232FF201C227.P001.pdf (593.64 [Ko])
Etat: Public
Version: Final published version
ID Serval
serval:BIB_232FF201C227
Type
Article: article d'un périodique ou d'un magazine.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Titre
Impact of helpers on colony productivity in a primitively eusocial bee
Périodique
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology
Auteur⸱e⸱s
Brand N., Chapuisat M.
ISSN
1432-0762
ISSN-L
0340-5443
Statut éditorial
Publié
Date de publication
2014
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
68
Numéro
2
Pages
291-298
Langue
anglais
Résumé
Small societies of totipotent individuals are good systems in which to study the costs and benefits of group living that are central to the origin and maintenance of eusociality. For instance, in eusocial halictid bees, some females remain in their natal nest to help rear the next brood. Why do helpers stay in the nest? Do they really help, and if yes, is their contribution large enough to voluntarily forfeit direct reproduction? Here, we estimate the impact of helpers on colony survival and productivity in the sweat bee Halictus scabiosae. The number of helpers was positively associated with colony survival and productivity. Colonies from which we experimentally removed one helper produced significantly fewer offspring. However, the effect of helper removal was very small, on average. From the removal experiment, we estimated that one helper increased colony productivity by 0.72 additional offspring in colonies with one to three helpers, while the increase was smaller and not statistically significant in larger colonies. We conclude that helpers do actually help in this primitively eusocial bee, particularly in small colonies. However, the resulting increase in colony productivity is low, which suggests that helpers may be constrained in their role or may attempt to reproduce.
Mots-clé
Social evolution, Cooperative breeding, Altruism, Eusociality, Halictid bees
Web of science
Open Access
Oui
Création de la notice
11/10/2013 17:25
Dernière modification de la notice
20/08/2019 13:00
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