"The ants, queen or regular worker, are all complete organisms, so the explanation falls short." Yes, but they are not "individuals" as we commonly reference.

"The ants, queen or regular worker, are all complete organisms, so the explanation falls short." Yes, but they are not "individuals" as we commonly reference. It's loose, but the best analogy for an human individual is the queen ant/bee/termite and the entire hive, or nest - with all the workers, etc. - are part of that queens own "extended phenotype": "After the gene-centered view of evolution was developed in the mid 1970s, non-reproductive individuals were seen as an extended phenotype of the genes, which are the primary beneficiaries of natural selection."[1] An individual worker ant is, to the queen, better thought of as one of your hairs or one of your tastebuds. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eusociality#Paradox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eusociality#Paradox