Highlights•Social insects have started spreading during the early phases of
globalization.•Multiple independent introductions and bridgehead effects are …

The effects of heterogeneity in group composition remain a major hurdle to our
understanding of collective behavior across disciplines. In social insects, division of labor …

According to Mendel's second law, chromosomes segregate randomly in meiosis. Non-
random segregation is primarily known for cases of selfish meiotic drive in females, in which …

Most ant species have two distinct female castes—queens and workers—yet the
developmental and genetic mechanisms that produce these alternative phenotypes remain …

Social animals display a wide range of behavioural defences against infectious diseases,
some of which increase social contacts with infectious individuals (eg mutual grooming) …

The sensory response threshold is a fundamental biophysical property of biological systems
that underlies many physiological and computational functions, and its systematic study has …

Clonal reproduction can provide an advantage for invasive species to establish as it can
circumvent inbreeding depression which often plagues introduced populations. The world's …

Many social animals display collective activity cycles based on synchronous behavioural
oscillations across group members. A classic example is the colony cycle of army ants …

Caregivers shape the rearing environment of their young. Consequently, offspring traits are
influenced by the genes of their caregivers via indirect genetic effects (IGEs). However, the …

Genes not only control traits of their carrier organism (known as direct genetic effects or
DGEs) but also shape their carrier's physical environment and the phenotypes of their …