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Policing effectiveness depends on relatedness and group size
Bartosz Walter1, Elisabeth Brunner, Jürgen Heinze
1Biologie I, Universität Regensburg, Germany. bartosz.walter@gmail.com
The American Naturalist
|April 5, 2011
Summary
Policing effectiveness in ant colonies depends on group size and relatedness. High relatedness boosts policing in small groups, while low relatedness ensures effective policing regardless of colony size.
Area of Science:
- Behavioral Ecology
- Evolutionary Biology
- Social Insects
Background:
- Social cohesion requires suppressing individual selfishness, often through policing mechanisms like aggression and egg removal in insect societies.
- Policing effectiveness is theoretically linked to relatedness and colony size, influencing inclusive fitness and costs of selfish reproduction.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how relatedness and group size interact to shape policing effectiveness in the ant Temnothorax unifasciatus.
- To test the hypothesis that policing effectiveness decreases with colony size and increases with relatedness.
Main Methods:
- Observed policing effectiveness in colonies of Temnothorax unifasciatus under varying group sizes and relatedness levels.
- Experimentally manipulated relatedness within colonies to assess its impact on policing behavior.
Main Results:
- Policing effectiveness was low in large groups and high in small groups when relatedness was high.
- Experimentally decreasing relatedness led to high policing effectiveness irrespective of group size.
- Policing effectiveness is influenced by both relatedness and group size, an ecological factor.
Conclusions:
- Policing effectiveness in T. unifasciatus is simultaneously shaped by genetic relatedness and group size.
- These findings have significant implications for understanding policing evolution and testing policing across diverse animal species.
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