scholarly journals Phylogenetic tests reject Emery's rule in the evolution of social parasitism in yellowjackets and hornets (Hymenoptera: Vespidae, Vespinae)

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (9) ◽  
pp. 150159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federico Lopez-Osorio ◽  
Adrien Perrard ◽  
Kurt M. Pickett ◽  
James M. Carpenter ◽  
Ingi Agnarsson
Keyword(s):  
Host Species ◽  
Phylogenetic Analyses ◽  
Social Parasitism ◽  
Strict Sense ◽  
Brood Care ◽  
Social Parasites ◽  
Social Hymenoptera ◽  
The Social ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Worker Caste

Social parasites exploit the brood-care behaviour and social structure of one or more host species. Within the social Hymenoptera there are different types of social parasitism. In its extreme form, species of obligate social parasites, or inquilines, do not have the worker caste and depend entirely on the workers of a host species to raise their reproductive offspring. The strict form of Emery's rule states that social parasites share immediate common ancestry with their hosts. Moreover, this rule has been linked with a sympatric origin of inquilines from their hosts. Here, we conduct phylogenetic analyses of yellowjackets and hornets based on 12 gene fragments and evaluate competing evolutionary scenarios to test Emery's rule. We find that inquilines, as well as facultative social parasites, are not the closest relatives of their hosts. Therefore, Emery's rule in its strict sense is rejected, suggesting that social parasites have not evolved sympatrically from their hosts in yellowjackets and hornets. However, the relaxed version of the rule is supported, as inquilines and their hosts belong to the same Dolichovespula clade. Furthermore, inquilinism has evolved only once in Dolichovespula .

scholarly journals The possible role of ant larvae in the defence against social parasites

2019 ◽  
Vol 286 (1898) ◽  
pp. 20182867 ◽  
Author(s):  
Unni Pulliainen ◽  
Heikki Helanterä ◽  
Liselotte Sundström ◽  
Eva Schultner
Keyword(s):  
Host Species ◽  
Social Parasitism ◽  
Social Parasite ◽  
Social Parasites ◽  
Nest Mate ◽  
Formica Fusca ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Host Worker ◽  
Cuticular Profiles

Temporary social parasite ant queens initiate new colonies by entering colonies of host species, where they begin laying eggs. As the resident queen can be killed during this process, host colonies may lose their entire future reproductive output. Selection thus favours the evolution of defence mechanisms, before and after parasite intrusion. Most studies on social parasites focus on host worker discrimination of parasite queens and their offspring. However, ant larvae can also influence brood composition by consuming eggs. This raises the question whether host larvae can aid in preventing colony takeover by consuming eggs laid by parasite queens. To test whether larvae could play a role in anti-parasite defence, we compared the rates at which larvae of a common host species, Formica fusca , consumed eggs laid by social parasite, non-parasite, nest-mate, or conspecific non-nest-mate queens. Larvae consumed social parasite eggs more than eggs laid by a heterospecific non-parasite queen, irrespective of the chemical distance between the egg cuticular profiles. Also, larvae consumed eggs laid by conspecific non-nest-mate queens more than those laid by nest-mate queens. Our study suggests that larvae may act as players in colony defence against social parasitism, and that social parasitism is a key factor shaping discrimination behaviour in ants.

scholarly journals Two new species of socially parasitic Nylanderia ants from the southeastern United States

ZooKeys ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 921 ◽  
pp. 23-48
Author(s):  
Steven J. Messer ◽  
Stefan P. Cover ◽  
Christian Rabeling
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Life History ◽  
New Species ◽  
Southeastern United States ◽  
Social Parasitism ◽  
Life History Strategies ◽  
Social Parasite ◽  
Social Parasites ◽  
Two New Species ◽  
Worker Caste

In ants, social parasitism is an umbrella term describing a variety of life-history strategies, where a parasitic species depends entirely on a free-living species, for part of or its entire life-cycle, for either colony founding, survival, and/or reproduction. The highly specialized inquiline social parasites are fully dependent on their hosts for their entire lifecycles. Most inquiline species are tolerant of the host queen in the parasitized colony, forgo producing a worker caste, and invest solely in the production of sexual offspring. In general, inquilines are rare, and their geographic distribution is limited, making it difficult to study them. Inquiline populations appear to be small, cryptic, and they are perhaps ephemeral. Thus, information about their natural history is often fragmentary or non-existent but is necessary for understanding the socially parasitic life history syndrome in more detail. Here, we describe two new species of inquiline social parasites, Nylanderia deyrupisp. nov. and Nylanderia parasiticasp. nov., from the southeastern United States, parasitizing Nylanderia wojciki and Nylanderia faisonensis, respectively. The formicine genus Nylanderia is large and globally distributed, but until the recent description of Nylanderia deceptrix, social parasites were unknown from this genus. In addition to describing the new social parasite species, we summarize the fragmentary information known about their biology, present a key to both the queens and the males of the Nylanderia social parasites, and discuss the morphology of the social parasites in the context of the inquiline syndrome.

scholarly journals Sex ratios in bumble bees

1997 ◽  
Vol 352 (1364) ◽  
pp. 1921-1933 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew F. G. Bourke
Keyword(s):  
Sex Ratio ◽  
Sex Allocation ◽  
Resource Competition ◽  
Bumble Bees ◽  
Social Parasites ◽  
Social Hymenoptera ◽  
Male Bias ◽  
Median Proportion ◽  
The Social ◽  
Parameter Values

The median proportion of investment in females among 11 populations of seven bumble bee ( Bombus ) species was 0.32 (range 0.07 to 0.64). By contrast, two species of workerless social parasites in the related genus Psithyrus had female–biased sex allocation, the reasons for which remain unclear. Male–biased sex allocation in Bombus contradicts the predictions of Trivers and Hare's sex ratio model for the social Hymenoptera, which are that the population sex investment ratio should be 0.5 (1:1) under queen control and 0.75 (3:1 females:males) under worker control (assuming single, once–mated, outbred queens and non–reproductive workers). Male bias in Bombus does not appear to be either an artefact, or purely the result of symbiotic sex ratio distorters. According to modifications of the Trivers—Hare model, the level of worker male–production in Bombus is insufficient to account for observed levels of male bias. There is also no evidence that male bias arises from either local resource competition (related females compete for resources) or local mate enhancement (related males cooperate in securing mates). Bulmer presented models predicting sexual selection for protandry (males are produced before females) in annual social Hymenoptera and, as a consequence (given some parameter values), male–biased sex allocation. Bumble bees fit the assumptions of Bulmer's models and are protandrous. These models therefore represent the best current explanation for the bees' male–biased sex investment ratios. This conclusion suggests that the relative timing of the production of the sexes strongly influences sex allocation in the social Hymenoptera.

scholarly journals Evidence for a conserved queen-worker genetic toolkit across slave-making ants and their ant hosts

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Feldmeyer ◽  
Claudia Gstoettl ◽  
Jennifer Wallner ◽  
Evelien Jongepier ◽  
Alice Seguret ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Social Parasites ◽  
Social Hymenoptera ◽  
Strong Connectivity ◽  
Core Set ◽  
Parasitic Lifestyle ◽  
Ecological Success ◽  
Worker Caste ◽  
Caste Differences ◽  
Genetic Toolkit

The ecological success of social Hymenoptera (ants, bees, wasps) depends on the division of labour between the queen and workers. Each caste is highly specialized in their respective function in morphology, behaviour and life history traits, such as lifespan and fecundity. Despite strong defences against alien intruders, insect societies are vulnerable to social parasites, such as workerless inquilines or slave-making (dulotic) ants. Here, we investigate whether gene expression varies in parallel ways between slave-making ants and their host ants across five independent origins of ant slavery in the Formicoxenus-group of the ant tribe Crematogastrini. As caste differences are often less pronounced in slave-making ants than non-parasitic ants, we also compare the transcriptomes of queens and workers in these species. We demonstrate a substantial overlap in expression differences between queens and workers across taxa, irrespective of lifestyle. Caste affects the transcriptomes much more profoundly than lifestyle, as indicated by 37 times more genes being linked to caste than to lifestyle and by multiple caste-associated gene modules with strong connectivity. However, several genes and one gene module are linked to the slave-making lifestyle across the independent origins, pointing to some evolutionary convergence. Finally, we do not find evidence for an interaction between caste and lifestyle, indicating that caste differences remain consistent even when species switch to a parasitic lifestyle. Our findings are a strong indication for the existence of a core set of genes whose expression is linked to the queen and worker caste in this ant taxon, supporting the genetic-toolkit hypothesis.

Impact of the Locus of Causality and Internal Control on the Social Utility of Causal Explanations

2010 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 173-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Perrin ◽  
Benoît Testé
Keyword(s):  
Internal Control ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Social Utility ◽  
External Control ◽  
Job Interview ◽  
Locus Of Causality ◽  
Causal Explanations ◽  
Professional Success ◽  
The Social ◽  
Different Types

Research into the norm of internality ( Beauvois & Dubois, 1988 ) has shown that the expression of internal causal explanations is socially valued in social judgment. However, the value attributed to different types of internal explanations (e.g., efforts vs. traits) is far from homogeneous. This study used the Weiner (1979 ) tridimensional model to clarify the factors explaining the social utility attached to internal versus external explanations. Three dimensions were manipulated: locus of causality, controllability, and stability. Participants (N = 180 students) read the explanations expressed by appliants during a job interview. They then described the applicants on the French version of the revised causal dimension scale and rated their future professional success. Results indicated that internal-controllable explanations were the most valued. In addition, perceived internal and external control of explanations were significant predictors of judgments.

Speaker-Oriented Attitude Datives in Social Context

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Youssef A. Haddad
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Shared Values ◽  
Social Functions ◽  
Rapport Management ◽  
The Social ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Levantine Arabic ◽  
Values And Beliefs ◽  
Social Acts

This chapter examines the social functions of speaker-oriented attitude datives in Levantine Arabic. It analyzes these datives as perspectivizers used by a speaker to instruct her hearer to view her as a form of authority in relation to him, to the content of her utterance, and to the activity they are both involved in. The nature of this authority depends on the sociocultural, situational, and co-textual context, including the speaker’s and hearer’s shared values and beliefs, their respective identities, and the social acts employed in interaction. The chapter analyzes specific instances of speaker-oriented attitude datives as used in different types of social acts (e.g., commands, complaints) and in different types of settings (e.g., family talk, gossip). It also examines how these datives interact with facework, politeness, and rapport management.

The Human Factor of Cybercrime

2021 ◽  
pp. 089443932110115
Author(s):  
Benoît Dupont ◽  
Thomas Holt
Keyword(s):  
Human Factor ◽  
The United States ◽  
Complex Interplay ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Social ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Qualitative Methodologies ◽  
Societal Dimensions ◽  
Individual Human

This volume highlights the central role of the human factor in cybercrime and the need to develop a more interdisciplinary research agenda to understand better the constant evolution of online harms and craft more effective responses. The term “human factor” is understood very broadly and encompasses individual, institutional, and societal dimensions. It covers individual human behaviors and the social structures that enable collective action by groups and communities of various sizes, as well as the different types of institutional assemblages that shape societal responses. This volume is organized around three general themes whose complementary perspectives allow us to map the complex interplay between offenders, machines, and victims, moving beyond static typologies to offer a more dynamic analysis of the cybercrime ecology and its underlying behaviors. The contributions use quantitative and qualitative methodologies and bring together researchers from the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark, Australia, and Canada.

scholarly journals Prevalence and Social Inequality in Experiences of Domestic Abuse Among Mothers of Young Children: A Study Using National Survey Data from Scotland

2021 ◽  
pp. 088626052098039
Author(s):  
Valeria Skafida ◽  
Fiona Morrison ◽  
John Devaney
Keyword(s):  
Physical Abuse ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
Domestic Abuse ◽  
Income Quintile ◽  
Coercive Control ◽  
Policy Interventions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Study Child ◽  
Nationally Representative

Domestic abuse is a pernicious societal issue that has both short- and long-term consequences for those who are victimized. Research points to motherhood being linked to women’s victimization, with pregnancy being a particular point of risk. Across UK jurisdictions, new legislation aims to extend the criminalization of domestic abuse to include coercive control. Less clear is the relationship between mothers’ victimization of different “types” of abuse and other factors such as age, socioeconomic status, and level of education. The article makes an original contribution to knowledge by addressing these limitations of the existing literature. Using nationally representative data from a Scottish longitudinal survey ( N = 3,633) into children’s development this article investigates the social stratification of mothers’ exposure to different types of abuse, including coercive control, physical abuse, and threats. Overall, 14% of mothers report experiencing any type of domestic abuse since the birth of the study child (age 6), of which 7% experienced physical abuse. Compared to mothers in the highest income households, mothers in the lowest income quintile were far more likely to experience any form of abuse (Logistic Regression, OR = 3.55), more likely to have experienced more types of abuse and to have experienced these more often ( OR = 5.54). Age had a protective effect, with mothers aged 20 or younger at most risk of abuse ( OR = 2.60 compared to mothers aged 40+). Interaction effects between age and income suggested that an intersectional lens may help explain the cumulative layers of difficulty which young mothers on low incomes may find themselves in when it comes to abusive partners. The pattern of social stratification remained the same when comparing different types of abuse. Mothers of boys were more likely to experience abuse, and to experience more types of abuse, more often. We reflect on how these findings could inform existing policy interventions.

scholarly journals Application of Biomimetics to Architectural and Urban Design: A Review across Scales

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (23) ◽  
pp. 9813 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuta Uchiyama ◽  
Eduardo Blanco ◽  
Ryo Kohsaka
Keyword(s):  
Urban Design ◽  
Architectural Design ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Conceptual Level ◽  
Sustainable Society ◽  
Types Of Knowledge ◽  
The Social ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Shed Light

Application of biomimetics has expanded progressively to other fields in recent years, including urban and architectural design, scaling up from materials to a larger scale. Besides its contribution to design and functionality through a long evolutionary process, the philosophy of biomimetics contributes to a sustainable society at the conceptual level. The aim of this review is to shed light on trends in the application of biomimetics to architectural and urban design, in order to identify potential issues and successes resulting from implementation. In the application of biomimetics to architectural design, parts of individual “organisms”, including their form and surface structure, are frequently mimicked, whereas in urban design, on a larger scale, biomimetics is applied to mimic whole ecosystems. The overall trends of the reviewed research indicate future research necessity in the field of on biomimetic application in architectural and urban design, including Biophilia and Material. As for the scale of the applications, the urban-scale research is limited and it is a promising research which can facilitate the social implementation of biomimetics. As for facilitating methods of applications, it is instrumental to utilize different types of knowledge, such as traditional knowledge, and providing scientific clarification of functions and systems based on reviews. Thus, interdisciplinary research is required additionally to reach such goals.

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