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Sib‐mating in the ant Plagiolepis pygmaea : adaptative inbreeding?
Author(s) -
THURIN N.,
ARON S.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of evolutionary biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.289
H-Index - 128
eISSN - 1420-9101
pISSN - 1010-061X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2009.01864.x
Subject(s) - biology , polygyny , inbreeding , mating , outbreeding depression , inbreeding depression , kin selection , kin recognition , inclusive fitness , biological dispersal , zoology , ecology , inbreeding avoidance , mate choice , mating system , population , demography , sociology
Multiple functional queens in a colony (polygyny) and multiple mating by queens (polyandry) in social insects challenge kin selection, because they dilute inclusive fitness benefits from helping. Colonies of the ant Plagiolepis pygmaea brash contain several hundreds of multiply mated queens. Yet, within‐colony relatedness remains unexpectedly high. This stems from low male dispersal, extensive mating among relatives and adoption of young queens in the natal colony. We investigated whether inbreeding results from workers expelling foreign males, and/or from preferential mating between related partners. Our data show that workers actively repel unrelated males entering their colony, and that queens preferentially mate with related males. These results are consistent with inclusive fitness being a driving force for inbreeding: by preventing outbreeding, workers reduce erosion of relatedness within colonies due to polygyny and polyandry. That virgin queens mate preferentially with related males could result from a long history of inbreeding, which is expected to reduce depression in species with regular sibmating.