Kin discrimination and altruism in the larvae of a solitary insect.
Kin selection theory predicts altruism between related individuals, which requires the ability to recognize kin from non-kin. In insects, kin discrimination associated with altruistic behaviour is well-known in clonal and social species but in very few solitary insects. Here, we report that the solitary larvae of a non-social insect Aleochara bilineata Gyll. (Coleoptera; Staphylinidae) show kin discrimination and sibling-directed altruistic behaviour. Larvae superparasitize more frequently the hosts parasitized by non-kin individuals than those hosts parasitized by siblings. Kin discrimination probably occurs by self-referent phenotype matching, where an individual compares its own phenotype with that of a non-familiar related individual, a mechanism rarely demonstrated in animals. The label used to recognize kin from non-kin corresponds to substances contained in the plug placed on the hosts by the resident larvae during the parasitization process. Kin competition induced by a limited larval dispersion may have favoured the evolution of kin recognition in this solitary species.
Lizé
Anne
A
Equipe d'Ecobiologie des Insectes Parasitoïdes, Université de Rennes 1, Campus de Beaulieu, 263 Av du général Leclerc, 35042 Rennes, France. anne.lize@univ-rennes1.fr
Carval
Dominique
D
Cortesero
Anne Marie
AM
Fournet
Sylvain
S
Poinsot
Denis
D
D000533:Altruism; D000818:Animals; D001517:Coleoptera / Q000502:physiology*; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D007814:Larva / Q000502:physiology; D013045:Species Specificity