Gadagkar, R (2010) War and Peace: Conflict and Cooperation in a Tropical Insect Society. [Book Chapter]
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Gadagkar 2011-In Cockell et al.pdf - Published Version Download (384kB) | Preview |
Abstract
It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest, of mankind., Voltaire (1694-1778), Philosophical Dictionary, The Insect Societies Most insect species appear to complete their life cycles without the need for any significant, interaction with other members of their species except during the act of mating. Other, species however, practice group life with varying degrees of dependence on interaction, with conspecifics2. The most extreme of such dependence is seen in the so called eusocial, species that spend all or most of their lives in colonies. These include some bees and wasps, and all ants and termites. We often refer to these social insect species as insect societies., Indeed, as we will see below, the insect societies rival if not surpass human societies in the, complexity of their social organization and integration, division of labor, communication, and even their caste systems. A matter of great interest, but probably of little relevance, to our present discussion is that (with the exception of the termites) the insect societies, are “feminine monarchies”. I borrow the phrase first used by the cleric Charles Butler, in 1634 to describe the honeybee society; their colonies consist of queens and female, workers while the males play no domestic role – they merely mate and die. The most, striking feature of insect societies is reproductive division of labor – only one or a small number of individuals reproduce (the queens) while the rest remain sterile (the workers), and perform all the tasks associated with nest building and maintenance, foraging and, brood care. In addition to reproductive division of labor between the queens and the, workers, there is often further division of non-reproductive labor among the workers. It, is this division of labor, first between the queen caste and worker caste and then between, the different worker sub-castes that appear to be the secret of the unparalleled ecological, success and dominance of social insects as compared to non-social species, insect or otherwise, (Wilson, 1971; Wilson, 1990; Hölldobler and Wilson, 2009).
| Item Type: | Book Chapter |
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| Publisher: | EPFL Press |
| Additional Information: | copyright to this article belongs to EPFL Press |
| Keywords: | Tropical insect society, Social wasps, Eusociality, Nestmate discrimination, Kin recognition, Ropalidia marginata |
| Department/Centre: | Division of Biological Sciences > Centre for Ecological Sciences |
| Date Deposited: | 18 Mar 2021 09:58 |
| Last Modified: | 18 Mar 2021 09:58 |
| URI: | http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/68315 |
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