Male production in Parachartergus colobopterus, a neotropical, swarm-founding wasp

Studies of within-colony genetic conflicts have revealed that worker intere sts sometimes prevail even when they conflict with the queens' interests. M ale production is one area where worker's and queens' interests may conflic t. A worker is most closely related to her own sons; however, queens often monopolize male production even when outnumbered by the workers. A possible explanation is that workers prevent each other from reproducing when they are more highly related to queen's sons than to other worker's sons. We inv estigated male production in Parachartergus colobopterus, using DNA microsa tellite loci to determine within-colony relatedness and who produced the ma les. Males were only produced in colonies where collective worker interests and queen interests both favored queens' sons. Analyses of the male genoty pes showed that males were produced by the queens. Queen production of male s could also be favored if worker reproduction reduced colony efficiency Th is is an example of a situation where potential within-colony conflict is r esolved by limiting male production to those colonies where the genetic int erests of workers collectively, queens, and the interests of colony efficie ncy coincide. If this kind of conflict resolution is general, within-colony conflict may have played a larger role in social evolution than is current ly apparent.