Abstract
Cooperation among kin is common in animal societies. Kin groups may form by individuals directly discriminating relatives based on kin recognition cues, or form passively through natal philopatry and limited dispersal. We describe the genetic landscape for a primitively eusocial wasp, Polistes dominula, and ask whether individuals choose cooperative partners that are nearby and/or that are genetic relatives. Firstly, we genotyped an entire sub-population of 1361 wasps and found genetic structuring on an extremely fine scale: the probability of finding genetic relatives decreases exponentially within just a few meters of an individual’s nest. At the same time, however, we found a lack of genetic structuring between natural nest aggregations within the population. Secondly, in a separate dataset where ~2000 wasps were genotyped, we show that wasps forced experimentally to make a new nest choice tended to choose new nests near to their original nests, and that these nests tended to contain some full sisters. However, a significant fraction of wasps chose nests that did not contain sisters, despite sisters being present in nearby nests. Although we cannot rule out a role for direct kin recognition or natal nest-mate recognition, our data suggest that kin groups may form via a philopatric rule-of-thumb, whereby wasps simply select groups and nesting sites that are nearby. The result is that most subordinate helpers obtain indirect fitness benefits by breeding cooperatively.
Highlights
Hamilton’s rule states that individuals gain indirect fitness through altruistic or cooperative behaviours that are directed towards genetically related recipients [1]
Joiners chose new nests that were significantly closer in 3D space to their original nests than if they had chosen a nest randomly
We show that wasps that visit and permanently join new nests tend to do so within this 5m radius, maximising their chances of joining a group that contains full sisters
Summary
Hamilton’s rule states that individuals gain indirect fitness through altruistic or cooperative behaviours that are directed towards genetically related recipients [1]. One way to ensure that help is directed towards relatives is to discriminate kin directly using cues such as pheromones or cuticular hydrocarbons [2,3]. Partner choice correlates with fine scale kin structuring in a paper wasp. The Leverhulme Trust, Early Career Fellowship ECF-2016-080. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript
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