Irregular brood patterns and worker reproduction in social wasps

Abstract

The potential for reproductive conflict among colony members exists in all social insect societies. For example, queens and workers may be in conflict over the production of males within colonies. Kin selection theory predicts that in a colony headed by a multiply-mated queen, worker reproduction is prevented by worker policing in the form of differential oophagy. However, few studies have demonstrated that workers actually lay eggs within queenright colonies. The purpose of this study was to determine if workers laid male eggs within unmanipulated queen-right colonies of the polyandrous social wasps Vespula maculifrons and V. squamosa. We focused our analysis on an unusual brood pattern within colonies, multiple egg cells. We were primarily interested in determining if individuals reared in these irregular circumstances were queen or worker offspring. To address this question, we genotyped 318 eggs from eight V. maculifrons and two V. squamosa colonies. No worker reproduction was detected in any of the queenright colonies; all of the eggs found in multiple egg cells were consistent with being queen-produced. However, the frequency of multiple egg cells differed among colonies, suggesting that queens vary in the frequency of errors they make when laying eggs within cells. Finally, we suggest that workers may not be laying eggs within queenright colonies and that worker reproduction may be controlled through mechanisms other than differential oophagy in polyandrous Vespula wasps.