Data from: Kin discrimination increases with odor distance in the German cockroach

Kin recognition mediates altruistic behavior and inbreeding avoidance in
many animal societies. So far, evidence for accurate kin recognition, when
individuals distinguish fine scale differences in genetic relatedness, in
social insects is mixed. Although this ability should be counter selected
to reduce risks of nepotism in eusocial colonies, accurate kin recognition
may be beneficial in less integrated societies where genetic conflicts are
reduced. Here we show that gregarious cockroaches Blattella germanica
discriminate multiple levels of relatedness and identify inherited
cuticular odors as potential kin recognition cues. When given a choice
between aggregation sites containing either full siblings or less related
conspecifics, cockroaches showed an increasing preference for resting with
full siblings with increasing genetic distance between stimuli groups,
from 50% of choices in the presence of half siblings or cousins, to 60.7%
with less related cockroaches from the same strain, and 72.9% with
cockroaches from a different strain. Examination of the cuticular
hydrocarbon profiles of 288 nymphs and their 54 parents revealed that the
chemical distance between cockroaches was negatively correlated to their
relatedness. Using a Bayesian animal model approach for quantitative
genetic analyses, we identified several highly heritable methyl-branched
alkanes as good candidates for kin recognition cues. Our results suggest
that kin recognition is based on genetically inherited odors in this
gregarious insect and highlight mechanistic similarities with nestmate
recognition in eusocial species.