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Evolution Of Eusocial Behavior: Offspring Choice Or Parental Parasitism?, Eric Charnov

Biology Faculty & Staff Publications

Assuming the subsocial route towards eusociality, I show that selection favors worker habits (under haplodiploidy) provided the mutant workers are able to bias the sex ratio towards sisters and/or selectively substitute their sons for brothers. If the original workers are not able to do this, selection does not favor the habit. However, under these conditions, selection is indifferent as to whether an individual rears offspring or sibs. This makes it easy for a mother to enlist her daughters services in rearing other offspring, since the daughter cannot evolve to stop the parental parasitism. These results deal with the origin of …