The evolution of the supercolony and the role of
parasites
Investigating the evolution of cooperation is
essential to explaining the ecological dominance of many social species. The
highly successful social insects are often thought of as colonies residing in
single internally-cooperative nests. In reality, many ant species form nests
that connect cooperatively with neighbouring nests, becoming ‘unicolonial’.
Explaining the evolution of unicolonial cooperation is challenging because
although conspecifics in these extended colonies are behaving co-operatively,
they also compete for resources. Resource competition means that a unicolonial
strategy should be vulnerable to cheats who recognise closer kin and cooperate
selectively, securing resources for their own near relatives, at the expense of
the whole colony. In the light of this potential instability, how does
unicoloniality arise and persist? One possibility is that parasitism drives
co-occurrence of multiple queens for increased genetic diversity, allowing
colonies to split between connected nests. This studentship addresses the
current lack of theoretical models of the evolutionary of unicoloniality and
the absence of empirical data on the effects of parasitism on unicoloniality.
How to apply
This project will be co-supervised by Elva Robinson
(Biology, University of York) and James Marshall (Computer Science, University
of Sheffield). The project will start Oct 2015 and is competitively funded.
UK/EU students only. If you would like to apply, please send a CV and covering
letter to: Elva.Robinson@york.ac.uk