Mechanisms for polyandry evolution in a complex social bee

Polyandry in social Hymenoptera is associated with reduced within-colony relatedness and increased colony-level ecologic fitness. One explanation for this sees increasing within-nest genetic diversity as a mechanism for improving group task efficiency and colony competitiveness. A queen on her mating flight captures nearly 90% of her breeding population’s allele potential by her tenth effective mating (me~10 males). Under this population allele capture (PAC) model, colony fitness gains track mating number in an asymptotic manner, leveling out after about the tenth mating. A supporting theory we call the genotype composition (GC) model sees genetic novelty at mating levels higher than the me~10 asymptote, the hyperpolyandry zone, resulting from unique genotype compositions whose number are potentially infinite. Colony fitness gains under the GC model will track mating number in a linear manner. We set up field colonies with Apis mellifera queens each instrumentally mated with 1, 2, 4, 8,..., Brood production and parasite numbersHolistic colony strength measures, considered proxies for fitness, were taken at roughly monthly intervals in Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, and Oct 2019.
Brood area was derived by visually summing proportions of whole deep frames covered by brood (Delaplane et al. 2013) and converting frames of brood to cm2 by the observation that one deep Langstroth comb (both sides) = 1760 cm2.
Relative numbers of parasitic Varroa destructor mites were found by inserting sticky sampling sheets into bottom board hive inserts and recording the number of Varroa mites trapped after 24 hours (Dietemann et al. 2013).
Worker task distributionsIn Mar 2020, we removed combs of emerging brood from one overwintered experimental field colony whose queen was mated at the mo=16 level and from another colony whose queen was mated at the mo=32 level. These were the only two surviving colonies with enough brood to perform the experiment. These combs were labeled by colony of origin, bagged i..., , # Data from: Mechanisms for polyandry evolution in a complex social bee

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.fqz612k0x](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.fqz612k0x)

Two datasets are attached: (1) Delaplane et al. 2024 BEAS colony strength data and (2) Delaplane et al. 2024 BEAS observation hive data/

## Description of the data and file structure

Column identifiers for \"Delaplane et al. 2024 BEAS colony strength data\"

1. A, timepoint. Each of five colony sampling episodes at roughly monthly intervals, June, July, August, September, October, numbered consecutively 1-5. Data were collected from all surviving colonies at each timepoint.
2. B, unique field colony identifier
3. C, polyandry treatment of queen. Each was instrumentally inseminated with the semen of 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, or 32 males.
4. D, unique queen identifier with colored plastic thoracic disks
5. E, 24-hr colony counts of parasitic *Varroa destructor* mites on hive bottom board sticky sheets
6. F, colony area (cm2) of brood, all...