Working-class royalty: Bees beat the caste system

Biology Letters

Volumn 1, Issue 2, 2005, Pages 125-128

  Wenseleers, Tom ^a,d   Ratnieks, Francis L W ^b,d   Ribeiro, Marcia De F ^c   Alves, Denise De A ^c   Imperatriz Fonseca, Vera Lucia ^c  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LEUVEN   (Belgium)

^b UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD   (United Kingdom)

^c UNIVERSITY OF SÃO PAULO   (Brazil)

^d Institute for Advanced Study Berlin   (Germany)

Author keywords

Caste conflict; Schwarziana quadripunctata; Social insects; Stingless bees

Indexed keywords

BEE; CASTE SYSTEM; REPRODUCTIVE POTENTIAL; SOCIAL CONFLICT;

ANIMAL BEHAVIOR; ANIMAL CASTE; ANIMAL SOCIETY; ANT; ARTICLE; BEE; CONTROLLED STUDY; FEMALE; MALE; MORPHOLOGY; NONHUMAN; PRIORITY JOURNAL; WASP;

APOIDEA; FORMICIDAE; HEXAPODA; MELIPONINAE; SCAPTOTRIGONA POSTICA; SCHWARZIANA QUADRIPUNCTATA;

EID: 25444482687     PISSN: 17449561     EISSN: 1744957X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2004.0281     Document Type: Article

References (24)

1. Beekman, M. & Ratnieks, F. L. W. 2003 Power over reproduction in social Hymenoptera. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 358, 1741-1753.
2. Bourke, A. F. G. & Franks, N. R. 1995 Social evolution in ants. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
3. Bourke, A. F. G. & Ratnieks, F. L. W. 1999 Kin conflict over caste determination in social Hymenoptera. Behav. Ecol Sociobiol. 46, 287-297.
4. Camargo, J. M. F. 1974 Notas sobre a morfologia e biologia de Plebeia (Schwarziana) quadripunctata quadripunctata (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Meliponinae). Studia Entomologica 17, 433-470.
5. Engels, W. & Imperatriz-Fonseca, V. L. 1990 Caste development, reproductive strategies, and control of fertility in honey bees and stingless bees. In Social insects. An evolutionary approach to castes and reproduction (ed. W. Engels), pp. 167-230. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer.
6. Hamilton, W. D. 1964 The genetical evolution of social behaviour. I & II. J. Theor. Biol. 7, 1-52.
7. Heinze, J. 1998 Intercastes, intermorphs, and ergatoid queens: who is who in ant reproduction? Insectes Soc. 45, 113-124.
8. Imperatriz-Fonseca, V. L. 1990 Swarming activity in Schwarziana quadripunctata (Apidae, Meliponinae). In Social insects and the environment (ed. G. K. Veeresh, B. Mallik & C. A. Viraktamath), pp. 744-745. Oxford and Bombay, India: IBH Publishing Co.
9. Imperatriz-Fonseca, V. L. & Zucchi, R. 1995 Virgin queens in stingless bee (Apidae, Meliponinae) colonies: a review. Apidologie 26, 231-244.
10. Michener, C. D. 1974 The social behavior of the bees. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
11. Nogueira-Ferreira, F. H., Baio, M. V., Noll, F. B., Tidon-Sklorz, R. & Zucchi, R. 2000 Morphometric study in Schwarziana quadripunctata with emphasis on virgin queens (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Meliponinae). Sociobiology 35, 99-108.
12. Ratnieks, F. L. W. 2001 Heirs and spares: caste conflict and excess queen production in Melipona bees. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol 50, 467-473.
13. Ratnieks, F. L. W. & Wenseleers, T. 2005 Policing insect societies. Science 307, 54-56.
14. Ribeiro, M. F. & Alves, D. A. 2001 Size variation in Schwarziana quadripunctata queens (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Meliponini). Rev. Etol. 3, 59-65.
15. Ribeiro, M. d. F., Imperatriz-Fonseca, V. L. & Filho, P. d. S. S. 2003 Exceptional high queen production in the brazilian stingless bee Plebeia remota. Stud. Neotrop. Fauna Environ. 38, 111-114.
16. Rüppell, O., Heinze, J. & Hölldobler, B. 2001 Alternative reproductive tactics in the queen-size-dimorphic ant Leptothorax rugatulus (Emery) and their consequences for genetic population structure. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 50, 189-197.
17. Tóth, E., Strassmann, J. E., Imperatriz-Fonseca, V. L. & Queller, D. C. 2003 Queens, not workers, produce the males in the stingless bee Schwarziana quadripunctata. Anim. Behav. 66, 359-368.
18. Wenseleers, T. & Ratnieks, F. L. W. 2004 Tragedy of the commons in Melipona bees. Proc. R. Soc. B(Suppl. 5) 271, S310-S312.
19. Wenseleers, T., Ratnieks, F. L. W. & Billen, J. 2003 Caste fate conflict in swarm-founding social Hymenoptera: an inclusive fitness analysis. J. Evol. Biol. 16, 647-658.
20. Wenseleers, T., Hart, A. G., Ratnieks, F. L. W. & Quezada-Euán, J. J. G. 2004a Queen execution and caste conflict in the stingless bee Melipona beecheii. Ethology 110, 725-736.
21. Wenseleers, T., Hart, A. G. & Ratnieks, F. L. W. 2004b When resistance is useless: policing and the evolution of reproductive acquiescence in insect societies. Am. Nat 164, E154-E167.
22. Wenseleers, T., Helanterä, H., Hart, A. G. & Ratnieks, F. L. W. 2004c Worker reproduction and policing in insect societies: an ESS analysis. J. Evol. Biol. 17, 1035-1047.
23. Wheeler, D. E. 1986 Developmental and physiological determinants of caste in social hymenoptera: evolutionary implications. Am. Nat. 128, 13-34.
24. Wilson, E. O. 1971 The insect societies. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.