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Conflict and major transitions - why we need true queens
Madeleine Beekman1, Benjamin P Oldroyd1
1Behaviour and Genetics of Social Insects Lab, School of Life and Environmental Sciences A12, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
Current Opinion in Insect Science
|June 28, 2019
Summary
Insect queens minimize colony conflict, unlike human monarchs. The evolution of distinct queen and worker castes in insects, crucial for social evolution, links their reproductive success and enables larger societies.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary biology
- Sociobiology
- Insect behavior
Background:
- Human royalty can be a source of societal conflict.
- Insect colonies exhibit morphologically distinct queens and workers, suggesting a different role in social dynamics.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of insect queens in minimizing within-colony conflict.
- To explore how the evolution of queen and worker castes influences social complexity and conflict resolution in insect societies.
Main Methods:
- Theoretical analysis of social evolution in insect colonies.
- Comparative study of conflict dynamics in human versus insect societies.
Main Results:
- Morphologically distinct insect queens are central to minimizing conflict within their colonies.
- The evolution of irreversible queen and worker castes represents a major transition in social evolution, linking reproductive success.
- Increased mutual dependence between queens and workers reduces conflict, facilitating the growth of larger insect societies.
Conclusions:
- The evolution of specialized castes in insects, particularly the queen's role, is key to social cohesion and large colony size.
- While reducing overall conflict, the evolution of worker castes introduces new conflict dynamics, such as those arising from multiple mating by queens.
- The reduction of within-colony conflict, facilitated by the worker caste, paradoxically enables the evolution of complex reproductive strategies like queen multiple mating.
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