Gadagkar, R (1994) The Evolution of Altruism in Insects - A Case Study. In: Perspectives in Entomological Research. [Book Chapter]
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PDF (Gadagkar, R. (1994) The Evolution of Altruism in Insects - A Case Study. In: Perspectives in Entomological Research (Ed. O.P. Agarwal) Scientific Publishers, Jodhpur, pp. 263-275.)
Gadagkar 1994-In Agarwal.pdf - Published Version Download (1MB) | Preview |
Abstract
Termites, ants and some species of bees and wasps live in social groups of varying degrees of organization where individuals often cannot survive if removed from the group. Colonies of these social insects consist of one or a small number of reproductive individuals and a number of sterile workers. The sterile wort<ers in social insect colonies spend their whole lives working for the well-being of their rolony-mates and die without leaving behind any of their own progeny (Wilson, 1971; Michener, 1974; HOlldobler and Wilson, 1990; Ross and Matthews, 1991 ). How can the theory of natural selection, which is based on the concept of survival of the fittest, give rise to such altruism on the part of wotkers? This question has bothered evolutionary biologists starting from the time of Darwin (1859, p. 236) who termed it " ... one special difficulty, which at first appeared to me to be insuperable, and actually fatal to my whole theory." In the last 25 years there has been a great flurry of activity, both theoretical and empirical, bearing on this question. In what follows, I shall briefly describe the major theories that have been proposed and show how we have attempted to test these theories using the model system of Ropalidia marginata, a primitively eusocial tropical paper wasp.
| Item Type: | Book Chapter |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Scientific Publishers |
| Keywords: | Altruism, Insects, Ropalidia marginata, Ropalidia cyathiformis, Sitters, Fighters, Foragers, Genetics, Social Evolution, Kin Selection, Inclusive Fitness Theory, Haplodiploidy, Polyandrous, Serial Polygyny, Sub-Fertility Hypothesis |
| Department/Centre: | Division of Biological Sciences > Centre for Ecological Sciences |
| Date Deposited: | 01 Mar 2021 09:35 |
| Last Modified: | 01 Mar 2021 09:35 |
| URI: | http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/67906 |
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