Collective decision-making during reproduction in social insects: a conceptual model for queen supersedure in honey bees (Apis mellifera)
David R. Tarpy
Abstract
Insect societies have served as excellent examples for co-ordinated decision-making. The production of sexuals is the most important group decision that social insects face since it affects both direct and indirect fitness. The behavioral processes by which queens are selected have been of particular interest since they are the primary egg layers that enable colony function. As a model system, previous research on honey bee reproduction has focused on swarming behavior and nest site selection. One significant gap in our knowledge of the collective decision-making process over reproduction is how daughter queens simply replace old or failing queens (=supersedure) rather than being reared for the purposes of colony fission (=swarming) or queen loss (=emergency queen rearing). Here, I present a conceptual model that provides a framework for understanding the collective decisions by colonies to supersede their mother queens, as well as provide some key recommendations on future empirical work. ● Collective decision-making of social groups is a transdisciplinary paradigm that links self-assembling units. ● Social insects, and particularly honey bees, have been model systems for empirical study of collective decision-making. ● Direct fitness measures such as queen rearing have an outsized influence on the selective consequences of collective decisions. ● I present a novel conceptual model for supersedure — queen replacement without colony fission — as a neglected but intriguing paradigm for the study of collective decisions during honey bee reproduction.