Associate Professor of Biology York University Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Maternal care and mutual tolerance are necessary prerequisites for the evolution of eusociality. The maintenance of cooperative groups is well understood, but the proximate mechanisms for social group formation are understudied. Ceratina small carpenter bees are cosmopolitan genus ranging from solitary to eusocial behavior and well position to examine the origins of social behavior. Ceratina calcarata is a North American species that exhibits prolonged mother-offspring interaction, also termed subsociality, which is the simplest form of social behavior and foundational to the evolution of eusocial groups. Here I present ongoing studies examining the relative roles of maternal care, epigenetics, nutritional manipulation, behavioral coercion, and social environment on the establishment and maintenance of social groups in this species. These integrative behavioral and genomic studies are providing important insights into the developmental and environmental basis of prosocial traits and highlight the role of maternal manipulation on social group formation.
