TY - JOUR
T1 - Evidence for social parasitism of early insect societies by Cretaceous rove beetles
AU - Yamamoto, Shûhei
AU - Maruyama, Munetoshi
AU - Parker, Joseph
N1 - Funding Information:
This is a contribution from the Entomological Laboratory, Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan (Ser. 7, No. 39). J.P. was funded by a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship and grants from the NIH (RO1 GM113000) and the Ellison Medical Foundation to Gary Struhl, who provided a wonderful environment for this work.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2016.
PY - 2016/12/8
Y1 - 2016/12/8
N2 - The evolution of eusociality in ants and termites propelled both insect groups to their modern ecological dominance. Yet, eusociality also fostered the evolution of social parasitism - an adverse symbiosis, in which the superorganismal colonies formed by these insects are infiltrated by a profusion of invertebrate species that target nest resources. Predominant among these are the aleocharine rove beetles (Staphylinidae), a vast and ecologically diverse subfamily with numerous morphologically and behaviourally specialized socially parasitic lineages. Here, we report a fossil aleocharine, Mesosymbion compactus gen. et sp. nov., in Burmese amber (∼99 million years old), displaying specialized anatomy that is a hallmark of social parasites. Mesosymbion coexisted in the Burmese palaeofauna with stem-group ants and termites that provide the earliest indications of eusociality in both insect groups. We infer that the advent of eusociality led automatically and unavoidably to selection for social parasitism. The antiquity and adaptive flexibility of aleocharines made them among the first organisms to engage in this type of symbiosis.
AB - The evolution of eusociality in ants and termites propelled both insect groups to their modern ecological dominance. Yet, eusociality also fostered the evolution of social parasitism - an adverse symbiosis, in which the superorganismal colonies formed by these insects are infiltrated by a profusion of invertebrate species that target nest resources. Predominant among these are the aleocharine rove beetles (Staphylinidae), a vast and ecologically diverse subfamily with numerous morphologically and behaviourally specialized socially parasitic lineages. Here, we report a fossil aleocharine, Mesosymbion compactus gen. et sp. nov., in Burmese amber (∼99 million years old), displaying specialized anatomy that is a hallmark of social parasites. Mesosymbion coexisted in the Burmese palaeofauna with stem-group ants and termites that provide the earliest indications of eusociality in both insect groups. We infer that the advent of eusociality led automatically and unavoidably to selection for social parasitism. The antiquity and adaptive flexibility of aleocharines made them among the first organisms to engage in this type of symbiosis.
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U2 - 10.1038/ncomms13658
DO - 10.1038/ncomms13658
M3 - Article
C2 - 27929066
AN - SCOPUS:85006013250
VL - 7
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
SN - 2041-1723
M1 - 13658
ER -