Chiara BenvenutoSo, on Twitter we had an #AnimBehav2023 conference... We wanted to focus on the “social control of reproduction” often mentioned when there is unequal distribution of reproduction (#ReproductiveSkew): some individuals reproduce a lot while others don’t (think about social insects for example)
All started with sex changers: how can individuals of the 2nd sex prevent others from changing sex? #SequentialHermaphroditism (https://rdcu.be/c3ryr; https://rdcu.be/c3ryv) Mentions of forced sterility/suppression of reproduction are present in other groups
But how can dominant breeders regulate the reproductive physiology of others? In social insects it was already asked: are queen pheromones manipulative agents to impose worker sterility or honest signals of fertility? https://doi.org/10.1002/bies.201400180.
If there is honest signaling of reproductive dominance, then rather than #manipulation we should think about mutual decisions, where interacting individuals acknowledge their relative quality, establish breeding #dominance rank & either reproduce or down-regulate reproduction
https://doi.org/10.32942/X2B59V
https://doi.org/10.32942/X2B59V
This change in perspective applies to primates, birds, eusocial animals & sexchangers! Following "strategic growth" in #clownfish #meerkats strategic regulation of reproduction can be active decision-making in response to social contexts https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2022.03.010
Does this mean that #manipulation does not occur? No, it does! There are plenty of instances, in simultaneous hermaphrodites, in social parasites and even cases of facultative social parasitism https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2011.08.011 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.272.5263.889
Want to know more? Maria Cristina Lorenzi
@LEEC_USPN
and I have a preprint https://ecoevorxiv.org/:
https://doi.org/10.32942/X2B59V Thanks to everyone that helped us brainstorming on the topic
@LEEC_USPN
and I have a preprint https://ecoevorxiv.org/:
https://doi.org/10.32942/X2B59V Thanks to everyone that helped us brainstorming on the topic
Mauricio González-Forero@cbenvenuto This seems to resonate with this?: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2021.0386
Eusociality through conflict dissolution | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Eusociality, where largely unreproductive offspring help their mothers reproduce, is a major form of social organization. An increasingly documented feature of eusociality is that mothers induce their offspring to help by means of hormones, pheromones or ...
@MauricioGForero @jorgeapenas, this is great! Thanks for sharing!