According to a study, in what experts have called a “surprising act of disinterest,” some wasp colonies lend their spare workers the babysitter in neighboring nests.
Researchers in the UK studied some 20,000 wasps of Neotropical paper and their caretakers from 91 different colonies in Panama, including those near the canal.
Paper wasps are so named because of the gray and brown paper-like materials they produce from a mixture of chewed vegetable fibers and saliva that they use to build their nests.
The team found that as colonies increase in number, the utility of individual worker wasps decreases as they have an excess of labor.
This frees up some of the workers to help their more distant relatives who live in neighboring, smaller settlements with few workers.
However, these acts are selfless and altruistic because they cost workers wasps time and energy. They also have marginal advantages.
When wasps help their distant relatives, it increases the chance that the DNA they share will survive along with the assisted colony.
According to a study, in what experts have called a “surprising act of disinterest,” some wasp colonies lend their spare workers the babysitter in neighboring nests. In the picture, a paper wasp nest
“These wasps can act as members of the wealthy family who lend a hand to their second cousins,” said paper author and biologist Patrick Kennedy of the University of Bristol.
“If you can’t do much more to help your closest family, you can turn your attention to the extended family,” he added.
“By helping more distant relatives who have more needs – those living next door with fewer caregivers – workers can pass on more copies of their genes in general,” explains role co-author and behavioral ecologist Andy Radford, also of Bristol.
“We believe that similar principles of declining returns could explain seemingly paradoxical acts of altruism in many other social animals.”
Dr. Kennedy added, “The fact that these paper wasps in Central and South America help other colonies is really strange if you consider that most wasps, ants, and bees are extremely hostile to outsiders.
“To solve this puzzling behavior, we combined mathematical modeling with our detailed field observations. We ended up itching a lot. But it was worth it, because our results show that working wasps can redundant at home.
“A wasp in a colony with few larvae but many other workers becomes almost useless; the best we can do is take care of the larvae of other relatives.”
Researchers in the UK studied about 20,000 wasps of Neotropical paper (pictured) and their caregivers from 91 different colonies in Panama, including those near the canal
How forms of altruism seem to originate in nature has been an open question since the time of the naturalist Charles Darwin, since, at first glance, helping others would not seem to provide a way for living things to transmit their people.
However, Professor Radford explained, “in 1964, the legendary biologist WD Hamilton discovered the cardinal rule of animal altruism.”
“Great help for your family because they share many of your genes. Copies of your genes will succeed in the population.
Professor Hamilton had also studied tropical paper wasps, but was baffled when he examined police wasps in Brazil to see how workers left their families close to their nests to help those in neighboring colonies, which were more closely linked.
The new findings, however, explain how paper wasps can afford to help their more distant relatives in certain circumstances and gain an evolutionary benefit.
The team found that as colonies increase in number, the utility of individual worker wasps decreases as they have an excess of labor. This frees up some of the workers to help their more distant relatives who live in closer and smaller colonies who have no workers.
This study was based on the previous work of paper co-author and behavioral ecologist Seirian Sumner of University College London, which revealed that more than half of the workers in a population of Panamanian wasps help in various nests.
“Wasps offer incredible windows into the evolution of alteration,” he said.
“There are so many things going on in a wasp nest: power struggles, personal sacrifice, groups fighting the odds of surviving.”
“If we want to understand how societies evolve, we should look more deeply at wasps,” Professor Sumner concluded.
The full findings of the study were published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.