抄録
Colonies of many tropical polistine wasp species have multiple queens. However, recent studies have shown that effective queens comprise only one to a few individuals at the stage of the colony cycle when new reproductives are produced (cyclical oligogyny). The present article addresses the following three issues which are still unresolved : (1) There is a paucity of evidence for cyclical oligogyny even in some species having huge colonies of more than ten thousand workers and several thousand queens. (2) Coexistence of multiple egg-layers in Ropalidia rufoplagiata may be explained by ideas other than the cyclical oligogyny-kin selection hypothesis. (3) As the number of queens per colony is large throughout all stages of the colony cycle of some tropical species, if cyclical oligogyny prevails, it is necessary to demonstrate mechanisms which inhibit the production of reproductives by queens other than one or a few effective queen(s). However, there has been no clear evidence of such inhibition. In addition, the role of relief of queens during a colony cycle must be studied in relation to maintenance of eusociality, despite low intracolony relatedness.
