Mutually beneficial host exploitation and ultra-biased sex ratios in quasisocial parasitoids
Selfish interests usually preclude resource sharing, but under some conditions collective actions enhance per capita gains. Such Allee effects underlay early explanations of social evolution but current understanding focusses on kin selection (inclusive fitness). We find an Allee effect that explain...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
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Nature Publishing Group
2014
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41519/ |
| _version_ | 1848796293099421696 |
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| author | Tang, Xiuyun Meng, Ling Kapranas, Apostolos Xu, Fuyuan Hardy, Ian C.W. Li, Baoping |
| author_facet | Tang, Xiuyun Meng, Ling Kapranas, Apostolos Xu, Fuyuan Hardy, Ian C.W. Li, Baoping |
| author_sort | Tang, Xiuyun |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Selfish interests usually preclude resource sharing, but under some conditions collective actions enhance per capita gains. Such Allee effects underlay early explanations of social evolution but current understanding focusses on kin selection (inclusive fitness). We find an Allee effect that explains unusual quasisociality (cooperative brood care) among parasitoid wasps without invoking or precluding kin selection effects. In Sclerodermus harmandi, individual females produce most offspring when exploiting small hosts alone. However, larger hosts are more successfully exploited by larger groups of females, with the per-female benefits outweighing the costs of host sharing. Further, the extremely biased sex ratios (97% female) are better explained by mutually beneficial female–female interactions that increase the reproductive value of daughters (local resource enhancement), rather than by the usually invoked local mate competition between males. Thus, atypical quasisocial behaviour in a parasitoid wasp directly enhances reproductive success and selects for very extremely female-biased sex ratios. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:45:40Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-41519 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:45:40Z |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publisher | Nature Publishing Group |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-415192020-05-04T16:54:14Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41519/ Mutually beneficial host exploitation and ultra-biased sex ratios in quasisocial parasitoids Tang, Xiuyun Meng, Ling Kapranas, Apostolos Xu, Fuyuan Hardy, Ian C.W. Li, Baoping Selfish interests usually preclude resource sharing, but under some conditions collective actions enhance per capita gains. Such Allee effects underlay early explanations of social evolution but current understanding focusses on kin selection (inclusive fitness). We find an Allee effect that explains unusual quasisociality (cooperative brood care) among parasitoid wasps without invoking or precluding kin selection effects. In Sclerodermus harmandi, individual females produce most offspring when exploiting small hosts alone. However, larger hosts are more successfully exploited by larger groups of females, with the per-female benefits outweighing the costs of host sharing. Further, the extremely biased sex ratios (97% female) are better explained by mutually beneficial female–female interactions that increase the reproductive value of daughters (local resource enhancement), rather than by the usually invoked local mate competition between males. Thus, atypical quasisocial behaviour in a parasitoid wasp directly enhances reproductive success and selects for very extremely female-biased sex ratios. Nature Publishing Group 2014-09-12 Article PeerReviewed Tang, Xiuyun, Meng, Ling, Kapranas, Apostolos, Xu, Fuyuan, Hardy, Ian C.W. and Li, Baoping (2014) Mutually beneficial host exploitation and ultra-biased sex ratios in quasisocial parasitoids. Nature Communications, 5 . 4942/1-4942/7. ISSN 2041-1723 http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms5942 doi:10.1038/ncomms5942 doi:10.1038/ncomms5942 |
| spellingShingle | Tang, Xiuyun Meng, Ling Kapranas, Apostolos Xu, Fuyuan Hardy, Ian C.W. Li, Baoping Mutually beneficial host exploitation and ultra-biased sex ratios in quasisocial parasitoids |
| title | Mutually beneficial host exploitation and ultra-biased sex ratios in quasisocial parasitoids |
| title_full | Mutually beneficial host exploitation and ultra-biased sex ratios in quasisocial parasitoids |
| title_fullStr | Mutually beneficial host exploitation and ultra-biased sex ratios in quasisocial parasitoids |
| title_full_unstemmed | Mutually beneficial host exploitation and ultra-biased sex ratios in quasisocial parasitoids |
| title_short | Mutually beneficial host exploitation and ultra-biased sex ratios in quasisocial parasitoids |
| title_sort | mutually beneficial host exploitation and ultra-biased sex ratios in quasisocial parasitoids |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41519/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41519/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41519/ |