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Reproductive Dominance Strategies in Insect Social Parasites

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Abstract

In eusocial insects, the high cost of altruistic cooperation between colony members has favoured the evolution of cheaters that exploit social services of other species. In the most extreme forms of insect social parasitism, which has evolved multiple times across most social lineages, obligately parasitic species invade the nests of social species and manipulate the workforce of their hosts to rear their own reproductive offspring. As alien species that have lost their own sociality, these social parasites still face social challenges to infiltrate and control their hosts, thus providing independent replicates for understanding the mechanisms essential to social dominance. This review compares socially parasitic insect lineages to find general trends and build a hypothetical framework for the means by which social parasites achieve reproductive dominance. It highlights how host social organization and social parasite life history traits may impact the way they achieve reproductive supremacy, including the potential role of chemical cues. The review discusses the coevolutionary dynamics between host and parasite during this process. Altogether, this review emphasizes the value of social parasites for understanding social evolution and the need for future research in this area.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge Etya Amsalem and Christina Grozinger for helpful discussion on this topic and to Li Tian, Sarthok Rahman, Briana Ezray, Shelby Kilpatrick, and Guillaume Ghisbain, and the external reviewers for many helpful comments. This research was enabled by funding through the Penn State Eberly College of Sciences.

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  1. Department of Biology, 208 Mueller Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    Patrick Lhomme & Heather M. Hines

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  1. Patrick Lhomme
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  2. Heather M. Hines
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Correspondence to Patrick Lhomme.

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Lhomme, P., Hines, H.M. Reproductive Dominance Strategies in Insect Social Parasites. J Chem Ecol 44, 838–850 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-018-0971-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-018-0971-z

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