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Related Experiment Videos

When Darwin's Special Difficulty Promotes Diversification in Insects.

Frédéric Legendre1, Fabien L Condamine2

  • 1Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, UMR 7205 Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité ISYEB - UMR 7205 - MNHN CNRS UPMC EPHE, Sorbonne Universités, 57 rue Cuvier, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France.

Systematic Biology
|February 27, 2018
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

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Eusociality, or cooperative living, significantly boosts species diversification rates in termites. This effect is stronger in species with "true" workers, suggesting social structure drives evolutionary success over millions of years.

Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Ecology
  • Behavioral Ecology

Background:

  • Eusociality, a complex social organization, presents a long-standing puzzle in evolutionary biology.
  • The impact of highly integrated societies on species diversification remains debated, with conflicting hypotheses.
  • Termites, as an early-evolving eusocial group, offer a unique model for studying sociality's evolutionary consequences.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether eusocial lineages exhibit higher diversification rates compared to non-eusocial relatives.
  • To assess the role of different types of workers (true vs. false) in driving diversification.
  • To explore the potential link between eusociality, worker type, and microbial symbionts in diversification.

Main Methods:

  • Phylogenetic analyses were employed using termite evolutionary history.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Diversification rates were compared between eusocial and non-eusocial clades.
  • The influence of 'true' versus 'false' worker systems on diversification was specifically examined.

    • Main Results:

    • Evidence strongly supports that eusociality leads to significantly higher diversification rates.
    • The presence of 'true' workers, as opposed to 'false' workers, further amplifies diversification rates.
    • A correlation between 'true' workers, their associated prokaryotic microbiota, and higher diversification was observed.

    Conclusions:

    • Eusociality, particularly with 'true' workers, promotes greater species diversification over evolutionary timescales.
    • The findings suggest that organism- and species-level traits interact to influence species selection.
    • Further research is warranted to explore the interplay between microbiota and diversification in eusocial insects.