Abstract
Models of sex‐allocation conflict are central to evolutionary biology but have mostly assumed static decisions, where resource allocation strategies are constant over colony lifespan. Here, we develop a model to study how the evolution of dynamic resource allocation strategies is affected by the queen‐worker conflict in annual eusocial insects. We demonstrate that the time of dispersal of sexuals affects the sex‐allocation ratio through sexual selection on males. Furthermore, our model provides three predictions that depart from established results of classic static allocation models. First, we find that the queen wins the sex‐allocation conflict, while the workers determine the maximum colony size and colony productivity. Second, male‐biased sex allocation and protandry evolve if sexuals disperse directly after eclosion. Third, when workers are more related to new queens, then the proportional investment into queens is expected to be lower, which results from the interacting effect of sexual selection (selecting for protandry) and sex‐allocation conflict (selecting for earlier switch to producing sexuals). Overall, we find that colony ontogeny crucially affects the outcome of sex‐allocation conflict because of the evolution of distinct colony growth phases, which decouples how queens and workers affect allocation decisions and can result in asymmetric control.
Highlights
Eusocial Hymenopteran colonies may superficially appear to function as single organisms, where queens and workers could be viewed as the germinal and somatic tissues of multicellular organisms (Macevicz and Oster 1976)
Our model extends static allocation models with genetic conflict and dynamic allocation models without conflict and it allows to shed light on a number of questions about colony ontogeny, such as: how does sex-allocation conflict affect colony growth? How does sexual selection affect the production of sexuals? Which party wins the sex-allocation conflict?
WHICH PARTY WINS THE SEX-ALLOCATION CONFLICT? We show that the queen wins the sex-allocation conflict because the evolution of distinct phases of colony growth constrains the ability of workers to manipulate the overall sex-allocation ratio
Summary
Eusocial Hymenopteran colonies may superficially appear to function as single organisms, where queens and workers could be viewed as the germinal and somatic tissues of multicellular organisms (Macevicz and Oster 1976) Such individuals are usually not clonal, whereby some genes, for instance those influencing sex allocation or reproductive ability of workers, can experience diverging selection pressures in different individuals (e.g., Hamilton 1967; Bourke and Franks 1995; Haig 2003; Ratnieks et al 2006).
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