Isaiah was simply fascinated by the observation that many highly ecologically successful ants (e.g. the argentine ant, Linepithema humile) have queens that are multiply mated; so he decides to spend his lifetime pursuing this interest. In the end, this interest becomes highly profitable as he uses empirically-determined mating ratios to pick the winning lottery numbers for a Megamillions jackpot. (10 points)
(a) What would Isaiah calculate the average relatedness of workers in a colony is if the queen had been mated by three unrelated drones AND she allocated their sperm evenly when fertilizing her eggs (assume that Isaiah would calculate this correctly)? You may set up the equation—you do not need to complete the calculation.
(b) Imagine that Darlene is an ecologist visiting earth from another planet 1,000 years from now when argentine ants are the only species of Hymenoptera left on the planet. Why would she likely not evoke Hamilton’s explanation for the evolution of their altruistic behavior?
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