| characterization of 14 polymorphic microsatellite loci for the facultatively eusocial sweat bee halictus rubicundus (hymenoptera, halictidae) and their variability in related species. | sweat bees display considerable variation in social organization and a few species, such as halictus rubicundus, are even facultatively eusocial. fourteen polymorphic, unlinked microsatellite loci were isolated from h. rubicundus and characterized in 45 females. the number of alleles per locus ranged from two to 18 (mean 10.1), observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.24 to 0.98 (mean 0.71) and expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.24 to 0.98 (mean 0.70). six or more loci cross-amplified in four ot ... | 2009 | 21564587 |
| genetic differentiation across the social transition in a socially polymorphic sweat bee, halictus rubicundus. | eusociality is widely considered a major evolutionary transition. the socially polymorphic sweat bee halictus rubicundus, solitary in cooler regions of its holarctic range and eusocial in warmer parts, is an excellent model organism to address this transition, and specifically the question of whether sociality is associated with a strong barrier to gene flow between phenotypically divergent populations. mitochondrial dna (coi) from specimens collected across the british isles, where both solitar ... | 2010 | 20666996 |
| consequences of a warming climate for social organisation in sweat bees. | the progression from solitary living to caste-based sociality is commonly regarded as a major evolutionary transition. however, it has recently been shown that in some taxa, sociality may be plastic and dependent on local conditions. if sociality can be environmentally driven, the question arises as to how projected climate change will influence features of social organisation that were previously thought to be of macroevolutionary proportions. depending on the time available in spring during wh ... | 2017 | 27478300 |
| cryptic plasticity underlies a major evolutionary transition. | the origin of eusociality is often regarded as a change of macroevolutionary proportions [1, 2]. its hallmark is a reproductive division of labor between the members of a society: some individuals ("helpers" or "workers") forfeit their own reproduction to rear offspring of others ("queens"). in the hymenoptera (ants, bees, wasps), there have been many transitions in both directions between solitary nesting and sociality [2-5]. how have such transitions occurred? one possibility is that multiple ... | 2010 | 21055940 |
| social plasticity and early-diapausing females in a primitively social bee. | many of the females of the first summer brood of the sweat bee halictus rubicundus mate, soon vanish from the nesting site, undergo diapause, and return unworn the following spring to found their own nests without ever functioning as workers. roughly half a season's foundresses may originate in this way. this finding contradicts previous assumptions regarding timing of reproductive production in sweat bees and offers a remarkable example of intraspecific social diversity; some females in the pop ... | 1988 | 16593945 |
| adaptive colony sex ratios in primitively eusocial bees. | colony-level predictions about sex-ratio optimization in eusocial hymenoptera are different from the ones that apply to the population level. a recent empirical study on the sweat bee halictus rubicundus has revealed a distinct pattern in the colony sex ratio of the summer brood: eusocial colonies produced more female-biased sex ratios and non-eusocial colonies produce more male-biased sex ratios. these data are consistent with theoretical hypotheses as put forward by trivers and hare and severa ... | 1991 | 21232433 |
| phylogeography of the socially polymorphic sweat bee halictus rubicundus (hymenoptera: halictidae). | the evolution of sociality in insects holds a central place in evolutionary theory. by examining the phylogenetic patterns of solitary and social behavior and how they correlate with ecological variables, we may identify factors important in the evolution of sociality. in this study, we investigated historical and biogeographical patterns of sociality in a socially polymorphic bee species (one that demonstrates both social and solitary nesting behavior). this unique system allows for a more powe ... | 2002 | 11926501 |