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Eusocial bee male aggregations: spatially and temporally separated but genetically homogenous
Author(s) -
Santos Charles Fernando,
Francisco Flávio de Oliveira,
ImperatrizFonseca Vera Lucia,
Arias Maria Cristina
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
entomologia experimentalis et applicata
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.765
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1570-7458
pISSN - 0013-8703
DOI - 10.1111/eea.12407
Subject(s) - biology , inbreeding , eusociality , haplodiploidy , mating , outbreeding depression , population , hymenoptera , zoology , stingless bee , polygyny , mating system , evolutionary biology , ecology , ploidy , apidae , genetics , demography , gene , sociology
Male insects mostly aggregate near sites where sexually reproductive virgin females are found and where mating occur. This reproductive strategy is quite common in Hymenoptera and appears to decrease the chances of inbreeding. In Hymenoptera, inbred mating frequently result in sterile diploid males. Production of diploid males may reach high proportions in small bee populations, and it usually lead to population extinction within a small number of generations. Aggregation of males during a short period of time allow the mixing of local genes. In this paper, we analyzed male aggregations of T etragonisca angustula ( L atreille) ( H ymenoptera: A pidae), a eusocial stingless bee, using microsatellite molecular markers. We used population genetic statistics for haplodiploid organisms to address genetic structuring among male aggregations. Our findings indicate that, in general, male aggregations of T . angustula occurring over short time scales and in close proximity are genetically homogeneous as if a single aggregation. We conclude that T . angustula males randomly disperse within a population looking for mating chances rather than settle on a distinct male aggregation. This behavior seems to contribute to the reduction of inbreeding in this species.