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ON THE EVOLUTION OF DISPERSAL AND ALTRUISM IN APHIDS
Author(s) -
Abbot Patrick
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
evolution
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.84
H-Index - 199
eISSN - 1558-5646
pISSN - 0014-3820
DOI - 10.1111/j.1558-5646.2009.00744.x
Subject(s) - biology , sociality , biological dispersal , aphid , eusociality , population , ecology , interspecific competition , intraspecific competition , evolutionary biology , competition (biology) , coevolution , zoology , botany , demography , hymenoptera , sociology
How competitive interactions and population structure promote or inhibit cooperation in animal groups remains a key challenge in social evolution. In eusocial aphids, there is no single explanation for what predisposes some lineages of aphids to sociality, and not others. Because the assumption has been that most aphid species occur in essentially clonal groups, the roles of intra‐ and interspecific competition and population structure in aphid sociality have been given little consideration. Here, I used microsatellites to evaluate the patterns of variation in the clonal group structure of both social and nonsocial aphid species. Multiclonal groups are consistent features across sites and host plants, and all species—social or not—can be found in groups composed of large fractions of multiple clones, and even multiple species. Between‐group dispersal in gall‐forming aphids is ubiquitous, implying that factors acting ultimately to increase between‐clone interactions and decrease within‐group relatedness were present in aphids prior to the origins of sociality. By demonstrating that between‐group dispersal is common in aphids, and thus interactions between clones are also common, these results suggest that understanding the ecological dynamics of dispersal and competition may offer unique insights into the evolutionary puzzle of sociality in aphids.