Question

In a colony of facultative social wasps, the dominant female wasp is the half sister of all the other wasps. Normally wasps are able to produce 4 offspring on their own. With her sisters’ help, the dominant female is able to produce 10 offspring. What, normally, is the direct fitness of the sister wasps? In nature, would these wasps help out the dominant female? Explain why and what would need to change in order to get a different outcome (with respect to helping).

Answer 1

Answer:

1) The direct fitness of the sister wasp is 6, since the dominant wasp can produce 4 of their own and the rest out of 10 is 6 in which the sister wasp will share half chromosomes with the dominant wasp.

2) Yes! The dominant wasp will be helped by other wasps since the nature of all social insects which live in a colony, is to provide the service to the queen or the dominant one.

3) If the outcome should be different then the dominant wasp should be replaced with another wasp or the colony should not be having a dominant one which will make them to struggle because the dominant one makes all the decisions and even control the wasp population. Another way is to split the colony and make them into a small one but eventually they will try to expand the colony if the dominant one is present.