Data from: Effective population size in eusocial Hymenoptera with worker-produced males

In many eusocial Hymenoptera, a proportion of males are produced by workers. To assess the effect of male production by workers on the effective population size Ne, a general expression of Ne in Hymenoptera with worker-produced males is derived on the basis of the genetic drift in the frequency of a neutral allele. Stochastic simulation verifies that the obtained expression gives a good prediction of Ne under a wide range of conditions. Numerical computation with the expression indicates that worker reproduction generally reduces Ne. The reduction can be serious in populations with a unity or female biased breeding sex ratio. Worker reproduction may increase Ne in populations with a male biased breeding sex ratio, only if each laying worker produce a small number of males and the difference of male progeny number among workers is not large. Worker reproduction could be an important cause of the generally lower genetic variation found in Hymenoptera, through its effect on Ne.

在众多真社会性膜翅目（eusocial Hymenoptera）类群中，部分雄性个体由工蜂产生。为评估工蜂产雄现象对有效种群大小（Ne）的影响，本研究基于中性等位基因频率的遗传漂变机制，推导得到了存在工蜂产雄现象的膜翅目类群中Ne的通用表达式。随机模拟验证结果表明，所获表达式在广泛的实验条件下均可对Ne做出良好预测。基于该表达式的数值计算显示，工蜂繁殖通常会降低Ne。当种群的繁殖性比为1:1或偏向雌性时，Ne的降幅会较为显著。仅当每只产卵工蜂产生的雄性后代数量较少，且不同产卵工蜂间的雄性后代数量差异较小时，工蜂繁殖在繁殖性比偏向雄性的种群中才可能提升Ne。工蜂繁殖可通过影响Ne，成为膜翅目类群普遍呈现较低遗传变异现象的重要诱因之一。