Vying For Termite Throne
July 22, 2011
Social insects–ants, bees, wasps and termites in particular–can have over a million sterile and/or non-reproductive workers and soldiers. This seems counterintuitive to evolutionary theory. Evolution theorist Charles Darwin himself wondered how natural selection could favor traits that reduce reproductive success among worker offspring in highly social insects. Research supported by NSF sheds light on this paradox. credit: NSF
Topics:
Pollinators, Evolutionary biology, Hymenoptera, Natural selection, Evolution, Insect, Wasp, Ant, Eusociality, Termite, Superorganisms, Sociobiology