Month: September 2022

ADVANCED SOCIAL STRUCTURE. “Eusociality, the care across generations of the off-spring of a reproductive caste by a nonreproductive or less reproductive worker caste, is the most advanced level of social life in the insects. Although the condition is rare in evolution, once attained, it has often been spectacularly successful.” https://lnkd.in/drgWvGT View in LinkedIn

GREAT SUCCESS. “Thus, while only 2% of known insect species are eusocial, these species compose most of the insect biomass; in one patch of rainforest assayed near Manaus in Amazonian Brazil, they made up over three-fourths of the insect biomass. The eusocial insects, and in particular the ants and termites, tend to dominate the more persistent and defensible parts of terrestrial environments.” https://lnkd.in/drgWvGT View in LinkedIn

LARGE STRUCTURED SOCIETIES. “Why has eusociality been so successful? The well-documented answer is that organized groups beat solitaires in competition for resources, and large organized groups beat smaller ones of the same species.” https://lnkd.in/drgWvGT View in LinkedIn

COLLATERAL ALTRUISM. “Why, then, has eusociality been so rare? The answer is that it requires collateral altruism, which is behavior benefiting others at the cost of the lifetime production of offspring by the altruist. The existence of collateral altruism is one of the perennial problems of evolutionary biology. Given its genetic consequences, how can programmed sacrifices to collaterally related group members arise by natural selection?” https://lnkd.in/drgWvGT View in LinkedIn

ROOTS OF ALTRUISM. “In this article I argue that the origin of altruism leading to eusociality cannot be deduced by aprioristic reasoning based on general models. It can, however, be revealed by reconstructing actual histories with empirical data.” https://lnkd.in/drgWvGT View in LinkedIn

EUSOCIALITY TRAITS. “In all the species that display the earliest stages of eusociality, behavior protects a persistent, defensible resource from predators, parasites, or competitors. The resource invariably consists of a nest and dependable food within foraging range of the nest. The females of many species of aculeate wasps, for example, construct nests and then provision them with paralyzed prey for the larvae to consume.” https://lnkd.in/drgWvGT View in LinkedIn

HOW NUMEROUS ARE STARS?" "Assuming 10(11) to 4x10(11) stars in our Galaxy" "Assuming 2.46 x10(11) galaxies in the Cosmos" "We would have the equivalent of 2.46 x10(22) to 10(23) stars in the Universe. https://lnkd.in/dMS3ksU View in LinkedIn

There is something peversely special about rotting food. View in LinkedIn

THE NUMBERS. “Among the 50,000 to 60,000 known aculeates, at least 7 independent lines have reached the eusocial condition. In contrast, of the more than 70,000 parasitoid and other apocritan hymenopteran species, whose females travel from prey to prey to lay their eggs, none is known to be eusocial, nor is any one of the hugely diverse 5000 described species of sawflies and horntails. Larvae of some sawfly species form aggregations, but not eusocial colonies, and the adults lead solitary lives.” https://lnkd.in/drgWvGT View in LinkedIn