We run into a slight hitch when calculating the fitness of a sterile insect genotype though. Since it has no offspring - it has a fitness of zero.
But isn't the genotype the same, just whether or not the egg is fertilized or fed a specific nutrient? (thus it is more of a phenotype than genotype difference)
I think you have to look at reproductive units rather than individuals in these cases - the female doesn't function without the drones once she's built her reproductive nest, so they are extensions of her reproductive unit.
... a sterile insect genotype though. Since it has no offspring - it has a fitness of zero.
And the fitness of the queen would be low given that most offspring are the sterile drones and only some potential kings and queens, probably less than 0.1 by the above metric, yet they are able to expand and fill new areas easily. If you count the hive ability to produce new hives you get a different picture.
This fitness metric can be applied to the whole hierarchy from gene all the way up to kingdom, and beyond depending on your chosen hierarchy.
Yes, but. To me it has to be a snapshop metric: how is fitness measured today, and then measure it again tomorrow: things change in the environment and fitness changes with it.
Message 21An allelic fitness measurement could be defined as the rate of change of an allele's frequency. This then ties fitness directly and inextricably to the concept of evolution.
So if we graph the frequency of alleles then at any time we can take the slope of the curves for each one and judge their relative fitness by their rate of change at that moment. You can also graph the rate of change of the rate of change (second derivative) to see whether fitness is increasing or decreasing.
That works for me, and would seem to answer the problem of the hive species as well: it doesn't matter which specific individuals the fitness comes from in the overall population for the selection to work.
This can also be applied to observable features within a population, the physical manifestations that breeders use in their selection, that species use for sexual selection, the changes in beak size that match fitness in the Galapagos Finches, and the changes in proportions of light\dark color variations in the Peppered Moths.
Thanks.
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