Indiscriminate altruism: unduly nice parents and siblings.

Many animals can identify their relatives and bias altruistic behaviour in their favour. However, recent studies have also uncovered cases where nepotism might be expected but is weak or absent within social groups. For instance, in some bird and mammal species, males apparently feed offsping that have been sired by other males at the same rate as their own offspring. Similarly, social insect workers fail to favour more closely related individuals within their colony. Why is this so?

[1]  P. Sherman,et al.  The Ontogeny of Kin Recognition in Two Species of Ground Squirrels1 , 1982 .

[2]  L. Keller,et al.  Social life: the paradox of multiple-queen colonies. , 1995, Trends in ecology & evolution.

[3]  W. Getz,et al.  Genetic kin recognition: honey bees discriminate between full and half sisters , 1983, Nature.

[4]  K. Ross,et al.  Lack of detectable nepotism in multiple-queen colonies of the fire ant Solenopsis invicta (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) , 1997, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.

[5]  P. Frumhoff,et al.  Nepotism in the honey bee , 1990, Nature.

[6]  R. Page.  Sperm Utilization in Social Insects , 1986 .

[7]  W. Potts,et al.  Evolution of MHC genetic diversity: a tale of incest, pestilence and sexual preference. , 1993, Trends in genetics : TIG.

[8]  A. Grafen,et al.  Genetic scrambling as a defence against meiotic drive. , 1991, Journal of theoretical biology.

[9]  L. Sundström.  Sex ratio bias, relatedness asymmetry and queen mating frequency in ants , 1994, Nature.

[10]  R. Crozier,et al.  Genetic Intrigues. (Book Reviews: Evolution of Social Insect Colonies. Sex Allocation and Kin Selection.) , 1997 .

[11]  W. Getz.  Genetically based kin recognition systems , 1981 .

[12]  R. D. Alexander,et al.  Social learning and kin recognition : An addendum and reply to Sherman , 1991 .

[13]  T. Clutton‐Brock,et al.  The Evolution of Parental Care , 2019 .

[14]  P. Sherman,et al.  Kin Recognition by Phenotype Matching , 1983, The American Naturalist.

[15]  E. Adams,et al.  The dissolution of cooperative groups: mechanisms of queen mortality in incipient fire ant colonies , 1996, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.

[16]  J. Strassmann,et al.  Wasps fail to make distinctions , 1990, Nature.

[17]  L. Keller,et al.  Reproductive conflicts in cooperative associations of fire ant queens (Solenopsis invicta) , 1996, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences.

[18]  A. Møller,et al.  Sperm competition in birds : evolutionary causes and consequences , 1992 .

[19]  M. Breed,et al.  Kin discrimination within honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies: An analysis of the evidence , 1994, Behavioural Processes.

[20]  F. Ratnieks.  The Evolution of Genetic Odor-Cue Diversity in Social Hymenoptera , 1991, The American Naturalist.

[21]  Reply from g.d. Ruxton. , 1995, Trends in ecology & evolution.

[22]  G. Robinson,et al.  Genetic specialists, kin recognition and nepotism in honey-bee colonies , 1989, Nature.

[23]  W. Hamilton.  The genetical evolution of social behaviour. I. , 1964, Journal of theoretical biology.

[24]  R. W. Elwood.  Parental states as mechanisms for kinship recognition.and deception about relatedness. , 1991 .

[25]  N. Davies.  Dunnock Behaviour and Social Evolution , 1992 .

[26]  P. Sherman.  Multiple mating and kin recognition by self-inspection , 1991 .

[27]  L. Keller,et al.  Conditional Manipulation of Sex Ratios by Ant Workers: A Test of Kin Selection Theory , 1996, Science.

[28]  Nepotism in the honey bee , 1990, Nature.

[29]  L. Keller,et al.  GENETIC VARIABILITY, QUEEN NUMBER, AND POLYANDRY IN SOCIAL HYMENOPTERA , 1994, Evolution; international journal of organic evolution.

[30]  N. Christenfeld,et al.  Whose baby are you? , 1995, Nature.

[31]  Bruce Waldman.  Mechanisms of kin recognition , 1987 .

[32]  B. Kempenaers,et al.  Why do male birds not discriminate between their own and extra-pair offspring? , 1996, Animal Behaviour.

[33]  P. Frumhoff.  The effects of the cordovan marker on apparent kin discrimination among nestmate honey bees , 1991, Animal Behaviour.

[34]  L. Keller.  Queen number and sociality in insects , 1993 .

[35]  H. Kern Reeve,et al.  Conflict in single-queen hymenopteran societies : the structure of conflict and processes that reduce conflict in advanced eusocial species , 1992 .

[36]  L. Keller,et al.  Kin discrimination and division of labour among matrilines in the polygynous carpenter ant, Camponotus planatus , 1993 .

[37]  L. Paul.  Infanticide and maternal aggression: Synchrony of male and female reproductive strategies in mice , 1986 .

[38]  A. Pusey,et al.  Inbreeding avoidance in animals. , 1996, Trends in ecology & evolution.

[39]  H. Reeve,et al.  The Evolution of Conspecific Acceptance Thresholds , 1989, The American Naturalist.