Promiscuity Drives Self-Referent Kin Recognition

SummaryKin selection theory has been one of the most significant advances in our understanding of social behavior 1, 2 and 3. However, the discovery of widespread promiscuity has challenged the evolutionary importance of kin selection because it reduces the benefit associated with helping nestmates 4, 5 and 6. This challenge would be resolved if promiscuous species evolved a self-referent kin-recognition mechanism that enables individuals to differentiate kin and nonkin 7, 8 and 9. Here, we take advantage of an asymmetry in the level of promiscuity among males of alternative life histories in the bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus). We show that, as a consequence of this asymmetry, offspring of “parental” males have a high level of relatedness to nestmates, whereas offspring of “cuckolder” males have a low level of relatedness to nestmates. We find that offspring of parentals do not use a direct recognition mechanism to discriminate among nestmates, whereas offspring of cuckolders use kin recognition by self-referent phenotype matching to differentiate between kin and nonkin. Furthermore, we estimate that the cost of utilizing such self-referent kin recognition is equivalent to a relatedness (R) of at least 0.06. These results provide compelling evidence for adaptive use of kin recognition by self-referent phenotype matching and confirm the importance of kinship in social behavior.