Behaviour and Social Evolution of Wasps : The Communal Aggregation Hypothesis Paperback / softback
by Yosiaki (Professor, Faculty of Science and Arts, Professor, Faculty of Science and Arts, Okinaw Ito
Part of the Oxford Series in Ecology and Evolution series
Paperback / softback
Description
In this book, Yosiaki Ito presents data on tropical wasps which suggests that kin-selection has been over-emphasized as an evolutionary explanation of sociality.
He concentrates on the Vespidae (paper wasps and hornets), a group much discussed by evolutionary biologists because it exhibits all stages of social evolution - subsociality, primitive eusociality and advanced eusociality.
The author reports field observations by himself and others in Central America, Asia and Australia, showing that multiple egg-layers in a nest are not uncommon. Because coexistence of many "queens" leads to lower relatedness among colony members than in single-queen colonies, he suggests that kin-selection may not be the most powerful force determining observed social patterns.
Instead, subsocial wasps may first have aggregated for defence purposes in habitats with a high risk of predation, with mutualistic associations among many queens.
Through parental manipulation and then kin-selection, differentiation into within-generation castes may have followed.
This study should be of interest to students of ecology, evolution and behaviour.
Information
-
Out of stock
- Format:Paperback / softback
- Pages:168 pages, halftones, line figures, tables
- Publisher:Oxford University Press
- Publication Date:04/02/1993
- Category:
- ISBN:9780198540465
Information
-
Out of stock
- Format:Paperback / softback
- Pages:168 pages, halftones, line figures, tables
- Publisher:Oxford University Press
- Publication Date:04/02/1993
- Category:
- ISBN:9780198540465
