Eusociality, a form of animal social organization involving sterile and reproductive castes, is
a rare, but highly ecologically successful form of life. There are striking examples of eusocial …

Social insects are biological benchmarks of self-organization and decentralized control.
Their integrated yet accessible nature makes them ideal models for the investigation of …

In social groups, infections have the potential to spread rapidly and cause disease
outbreaks. Here, we show that in a social insect, the ant Lasius neglectus, the negative …

A key mechanistic hypothesis for the evolution of division of labour in social insects is that a
shared set of genes co-opted from a common solitary ancestral ground plan (a genetic …

Symmetry is pervasive across the tree of life, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and organisms (including humans)
build symmetrical structures for reproduction, locomotion, or aesthetics. 6, 7, 8, 9 Symmetry …

Social insects maximize resource acquisition and allocation through division of labor and
associations with microbial symbionts. Colonies divide labor among castes and subcastes …

Caste differentiation involves many functional traits that diverge during larval growth and
metamorphosis to produce adults irreversibly adapted to reproductive division of labor …

The Southern Hemisphere differs from the Northern Hemisphere in many aspects. However,
most ecological and evolutionary research is conducted in the Northern Hemisphere and its …

Social insects have provided some of the clearest insights into the origins and evolution of
collective behaviour. Over 20 years ago, Maynard Smith and Szathmáry defined the most …

Abstract Evolutionary Transitions in Individuality (ETI) have been responsible for the major
transitions in levels of selection and individuality in natural history, such as the origins of …