COLONY LEVEL SELECTION
The fitness of colonies is strongly related to the number of times that the queen mates. The greater the genetic diversity within the colony, the faster the colony grows. The difference between colonies that grow rapidly and slowly can be seen in some pictures found here. We do not know why colonies that are produced by queens that mate large numbers of times grow rapidly, but they reach reproductive size faster, survive better, and since reproduction is a function of colony size, reproduce more. We are investigating the possibility that colonies with greater genetic diversity are more resistant to the spread of disease or perform a greater variety of colony tasks.
Colonies that have high relatedness (low genetic diversity, small number
of matings) have almost no standardized growth over a period of five years.
Colonies with low relatedness due to a large number of matings, have
rapid growth rates.