- WHY IT MATTERS: Bill Hughes of the University of Leeds in England says the findings help explain natural selection in insects.
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Courtesy of FLW Ratnieks A nest of Polistes wasps from Brazil, in which females are monogamous.
Many bees, ants and wasps live together in highly cooperative societies primarily because this lifestyle offers a good way of passing down the family genes, not because it makes their own lives easier, new research suggests.
Scientists compared the mating behavior of females in 267 species of bees, wasps, and ants. They found that in the older species, females were always monogamous.
This finding supports the idea that monogamy - and, by extension, a high level of relatedness -- was key to the evolution of eusociality (many animals live together as a group without necessarily being social).
Source:
Audio excerpt from weekly podcast of the journal Science
