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Relatedness, Conflict, and the Evolution of Eusociality
The evolution of sterile worker castes in social insects – like these Polistes dominula wasps – has fascinated biologists ever since Darwin; how can selection favor a trait that decreases reproductive fitness? The previously accepted answer to this puzzle has recently been challenged, generating much controversy, but a re-evaluation now confirms important insights from kin selection and inclusive fitness, such as the importance of relatedness and the existence of conflicts in social insect colonies. See Liao et al.
Image Credit: Ian Sane, Flickr
Citation: (2015) PLoS Biology Issue Image | Vol. 13(3) March 2015. PLoS Biol 13(3): ev13.i03. https://doi.org/10.1371/image.pbio.v13.i03
Published: March 31, 2015
Copyright: © 2015 Sane. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
The evolution of sterile worker castes in social insects – like these Polistes dominula wasps – has fascinated biologists ever since Darwin; how can selection favor a trait that decreases reproductive fitness? The previously accepted answer to this puzzle has recently been challenged, generating much controversy, but a re-evaluation now confirms important insights from kin selection and inclusive fitness, such as the importance of relatedness and the existence of conflicts in social insect colonies. See Liao et al.
Image Credit: Ian Sane, Flickr