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Drone eviction assay raw data from Gilchrist et al for drone weights and eviction rates that have been treated with LPS or not

Harpur, Brock1

Published Mar 06, 2024 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.4f4qrfjjw

Data files

Mar 06, 2024 version files 483.50 KB

Abstract

Across the animal kingdom, males advertise their quality to potential mates. Males of low reproductive quality, such as those that are sick, may be excluded from mating. In eusocial species, there is some evidence that reproductive females gauge the quality of their mates. However, males often spend much more time with non-reproductive females as they are raised or, for some species, when they return from unsuccessful mating flights. Do non-reproductive workers evaluate the quality of male reproductives? Here we address this question using male honey bees (Apis mellifera), called drones, as a model. We generated immune-challenged drones by injecting them with lipopolysaccharide and tested: 1) do workers evict immune-challenged drones from their colony, 2) do cuticular hydrocarbon (CHC) profiles, body size, or mass change when drones are immune-challenged, and 3) are these changes used by workers to exclude low quality males from the colony? We found that an immune challenge causes changes in CHC profiles of drones and reduces their body mass. Workers selectively evict small and immune-challenged drones who, themselves, do not self-evict. This work demonstrates that some eusocial males undergo an additional layer of scrutiny prior to mating, one mediated by the nonreproductive worker caste.