Abstract
Beginning with Darwin (1859), a fundamental question for research on social insects has concerned the evolution of divergent phenotypes among already-sterile indiviuals (Linksvayer and Wade 2005). As reviewed in this volume, the caste-based (eusocial) societies of termites (Isoptera), and ants, wasps, and bees (Hymenoptera), have been extensively studied. A second question concerns the evolutionary origins of group life, for which appropriate foci are societies in which group members share a nest but work is not organized by caste differences (i.e. cooperative breeders and communal nesters).
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Organization of Insect Societies: From Genome to Sociocomplexity |
| Editors | Jurgen Gadau, Jennifer Fewell |
| Place of Publication | U.S. |
| Publisher | Harvard University Press |
| Pages | 148-169 |
| Number of pages | 22 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9780674031258 |
| Publication status | Published - 2009 |