据5月30日的《科学》（Science）杂志报道说，许多蜜蜂、蚂蚁和黄蜂以高度合作的群落方式生活在一起，其目的主要是这种生活方式提供了一种遗传家族基因的良好方式，而不是这样做能够使它们的生活变得更为方便。存在于这种“真社群性”社群中的利他主义长久以来一直是一个进化方面的谜团。在这种社群中，许多不育的工蜂会照看群体中的少数有繁殖能力的蜂后所生的幼蜂。
英国和澳大利亚的William O. H. Hughes及其同事对267种真社群性蜜蜂、黄蜂和蚂蚁的交配行为进行了比较。研究人员报告说，在较老的种系中，雌性个体总是单配偶的。在少数的雌性与多个雄性交配的例子中，这些种系是较近时才进化成的。这一发现支持单配偶性的理念是真社群性进化的关键。因此，正如“亲族选择理论”所预测，这类合作类型可能是作为相关个体帮助确保它们所共有的某些基因被遗传到未来世代中的一种方法而进化成的。（来源：EurekAlert!中文版）
生物谷推荐原始出处：
Science 30 May 2008:
Vol. 320. no. 5880, pp. 1213 - 1216
DOI: 10.1126/science.1156108
Ancestral Monogamy Shows Kin Selection Is Key to the Evolution of Eusociality
William O. H. Hughes,1* Benjamin P. Oldroyd,2 Madeleine Beekman,2 Francis L. W. Ratnieks3
Close relatedness has long been considered crucial to the evolution of eusociality. However, it has recently been suggested that close relatedness may be a consequence, rather than a cause, of eusociality. We tested this idea with a comparative analysis of female mating frequencies in 267 species of eusocial bees, wasps, and ants. We found that mating with a single male, which maximizes relatedness, is ancestral for all eight independent eusocial lineages that we investigated. Mating with multiple males is always derived. Furthermore, we found that high polyandry (>2 effective mates) occurs only in lineages whose workers have lost reproductive totipotency. These results provide the first evidence that monogamy was critical in the evolution of eusociality, strongly supporting the prediction of inclusive fitness theory.
1 Institute of Integrative and Comparative Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK.
2 School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia.
3 Department of Biological and Environmental Science, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9QG, UK.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: w.o.h.hughes@leeds.ac.uk
