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Tuesday "Noon" Seminar: Jan. 16, 2007Jeremy Bono on "Evolution of cooperative colony founding in Australian Acacia thrips"
12:30-1:45 p.m. in Biosciences West (map of building location), Room 208 |
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Talk Abstract Explaining conditions that promote the evolution of cooperation is fundamental to understanding many of the major transitions in evolutionary history, and continues to be a challenge for evolutionary biologists. Theoretical explanations for the evolution of cooperation generally fall within two categories: those involving direct benefits to the actor, and those involving indirect benefits (which requires genetic relatedness of the participants). Cooperative colony founding by social insects provides an arena for investigating the relative contributions of direct and indirect benefits to the evolution of cooperation. To date, nearly all detailed studies of cooperative colony founding have been conducted with the Hymenoptera, where the relative importance of direct and indirect benefits varies for different species. Here, I analyze the costs and benefits of cooperation during colony founding for one species of Australian Acacia thrips. I show that Dunatothrips aneurae foundress associations often consist of highly related females, though groups with unrelated foundresses are also found. Associations among relatives appear to be facilitated by limited dispersal, which results in viscous population structure. Per capita reproduction declines with group size, indicating a potential reproductive cost for some foundresses. However, the behavior also provides benefits in terms of increased foundress survival and protection against kleptoparasites. |
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