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Complex sociogenetic organization and reproductive skew in a primitively eusocial sweat bee, Lasioglossum malachurum, as revealed by microsatellites

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 06:24 authored by Robert J Paxton, Manfred Ayasse, Jeremy Field, Antonella Soro
The sweat bees (Family Halictidae) are a socially diverse taxon in which eusociality has arisen independently numerous times. The obligate, primitively eusocial Lasioglossum malachurum, distributed widely throughout Europe, has been considered the zenith of sociality within halictids. A single queen heads a colony of smaller daughter workers which, by mid-summer, produce new sexuals (males and gynes), of which only the mated gynes overwinter to found new colonies the following spring. We excavated successfully 18 nests during the worker- and gyne-producing phases of the colony cycle and analysed each nest's queen and either all workers or all gynes using highly variable microsatellite loci developed specifically for this species. Three important points arise from our analyses. First, queens are facultatively polyandrous (queen effective mating frequency: range 1¿3, harmonic mean 1.13). Second, queens may head colonies containing unrelated individuals (n= 6 of 18 nests), most probably a consequence of colony usurpation during the early phase of the colony cycle before worker emergence. Third, nonqueen's workers may, but the queen's own workers do not, lay fertilized eggs in the presence of the queen that successfully develop into gynes, in agreement with so-called `concession¿ models of reproductive skew.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Molecular Ecology

ISSN

0962-1083

Publisher

Blackwell Publishing

Issue

11

Volume

11

Page range

2405-2416

Pages

12.0

Department affiliated with

  • Evolution, Behaviour and Environment Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2012-02-06

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