Support for maternal manipulation of developmental nutrition in a facultatively eusocial bee, Megalopta genalis (Halictidae)
Open Access
- 6 January 2011
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology
- Vol. 65 (6), 1179-1190
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-010-1131-9
Abstract
Developmental maternal effects are a potentially important source of phenotypic variation, but they can be difficult to distinguish from other environmental factors. This is an important distinction within the context of social evolution, because if variation in offspring helping behavior is due to maternal manipulation, social selection may act on maternal phenotypes, as well as those of offspring. Factors correlated with social castes have been linked to variation in developmental nutrition, which might provide opportunity for females to manipulate the social behavior of their offspring. Megalopta genalis is a mass-provisioning facultatively eusocial sweat bee for which production of males and females in social and solitary nests is concurrent and asynchronous. Female offspring may become either gynes (reproductive dispersers) or workers (non-reproductive helpers). We predicted that if maternal manipulation plays a role in M. genalis caste determination, investment in daughters should vary more than for sons. The mass and protein content of pollen stores provided to female offspring varied significantly more than those of males, but volume and sugar content did not. Sugar content varied more among female eggs in social nests than in solitary nests. Provisions were larger, with higher nutrient content, for female eggs and in social nests. Adult females and males show different patterns of allometry, and their investment ratio ranged from 1.23 to 1.69. Adult body weight varied more for females than males, possibly reflecting increased variation in maternal investment in female offspring. These differences are consistent with a role for maternal manipulation in the social plasticity observed in M. genalis.Keywords
This publication has 71 references indexed in Scilit:
- Evolution of maternal effects: past and presentPhilosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 2009
- Maternal effects in cooperative breeders: from hymenopterans to humansPhilosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 2009
- What are maternal effects (and what are they not)?Philosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 2009
- Microsatellite DNA analysis reveals low diploid male production in a communal bee with inbreedingBiological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2000
- Pollen nutritional content and digestibility for animalsÖsterreichische botanische Zeitschrift, 2000
- Field evidence that host selection by conopid parasitoids is related to host body sizeInsectes Sociaux, 1996
- Colony structure, provisioning and sex allocation in the sweat bee Halictus ligatus (Hymenoptera: Halictidae)Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 1993
- Social competition among gynes in halictine bees: The influence of bee size and pheromones on behaviorJournal of Insect Behavior, 1989
- Sexual size dimorphism in parasitoid waspsBiological Journal of the Linnean Society, 1987
- Multiple-foundress associations in a temperate population of Halictus ligatus (Hymenoptera; Halictidae)Canadian Journal of Zoology, 1986