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Eusocial insects like honeybees, some wasps, and ants take this even one step further by combining the extraordinary but limited powers of one individual insect
by jly 10y ago
Eusocial insects like honeybees, some wasps, and ants take this even one step further by combining the extraordinary but limited powers of one individual insect to make highly-complex decisions with the coordinated input from thousands or millions of individuals. It's often stated that after humans, these eusocial insects are the most advanced life form on earth. After studying, for example, the fascinating voting process of how honeybees choose a new home during swarming, I am in full agreement.
- BurningFrog 10y agoBees, ants, and (I think) other hive living insects share ~75% of their DNA with their hive mates. This makes it reasonable to think of the hive as one individual! Just like we are made of individual cells and organs, an ant hill is made up of individual ants. That the parts can move separately is a fairly superficial difference.
- drcross 10y agoI think you mean 100% because ants are clones. The only difference between them and the queen is the nurturing process they go through which influences epigenetics.
- spqr0a1 10y agoWelcome to the complexities of Hymenoptera genetics! Workers are 75% related to each other (sisters) and only 50% related to their mother (the queen). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplodiploidy#Relatedness_ratios_in_haplodiploidy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplodiploidy#Relatedness_rati...
- Gibbon1 10y agoI remember reading essay on bees and altruism. Standard line is bees are altruistic because workers are 75% related. Author made the claim that's bunkum because a) Honey bees are rather extreme. b) Multiple male fathers. Bee reproductive setups are really diverse with honey bees at one end, solitary bees at the other, and just about anything else between.
- jly 10y agoThe eusocial altruistic behavior of bees and other Hymenoptera requires relatedness (kin selection), but it also requires other ecological benefits like a nest that could be kept safe across multiple generations. This work is detailed exhaustively by Richard Alexander where he discusses origins of altruistic group behavior in both eusocial species and humans.
- jly 10y agoIt's even more complicated than this with some species. Those numbers are true if a female mates once. Honeybee (Apis spp.) queens that lead successful colonies, for example, typically mate with a dozen or more male partners. This has beneficial genetic effects but is probably done just to satisfy sperm storage requirements since they only perform one mating flight. The result of this is that the thousands of sisters in the hive have many different fathers, reducing the worker-to-worker relatedness.
- hexane360 10y agoEnder's game explores this idea from a more philosophical perspective.
- jly 10y agoThe hive can be thought of as one superorganism, but I think it's more than a superficial difference. Eusocial species behavior evolved from fully-functioning individual insects (solitary bees and wasps that still exist, for example) as a behavioral adaptation. A human organ is not a self-surviving entity with social behavior. In a honeybee hive, queens typically mate with many male partners (10+). While all hive individuals are related, the majority female workers are each the product of diploid sex determination with multiple possible fathers.