RELATEDNESS AND ALTRUISM IN POLISTES WASPS

Genetic relatedness is expected to play a crucial role in the evolutio n of altruistic behaviors such as worker behavior in the social insect s. If individuals sacrifice their own reproduction, then the genes for this sacrifice will be lost unless these individuals aid the reproduc tion of others who share the genes. This leads to the prediction that altruism should be most common in species with high relatedness among potential beneficiaries. Here we report an attempt to test for such an association. We estimated both the incidence of altruism and the rela tedness to potential beneficiaries in foundresses of seven species of paper wasps. The predicted positive correlation was not found, and we conclude that factors other than relatedness are more important in det ermining interspecific differences in the incidence of altruism.