The sterile workers of social insects such as bees typically sacrifice reproduction to help their genetic relatives. But European paper wasps (Polistes dominulus; pictured) help unrelated individuals to breed and researchers have discovered why: it affords them the possibility of inheriting the breeder's nest and then producing their own offspring.
Female paper wasps build new nests every spring, either individually or in small groups of females, not all of which are related. Ellouise Leadbeater, now at the Institute of Zoology in London, and her colleagues found that subordinate females produce more offspring than lone breeders; sometimes reproducing while still subordinate, but more often after inheriting the nest and becoming dominant.
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Why unrelated wasps help. Nature 476, 255 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/476255e
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/476255e
