Sentences with phrase «for social insects»

But while there was huge diversity among populations, «it was astoundingly different when we looked within populations,» Schal says: Bugs within one infestation were remarkably similar genetically, and their degree of «relatedness» was unusually high — even higher than for some social insects.

For social insects, I'm presenting as much evidence as I can summon for each of the two opposing views: Either collateral kin selection is the key, or group selection favored by very unusual environments caused them to be altruistic.

Not exact matches

Ants, social insects that live in structured communities and work around the clock to keep the colony running, really take one for the team.

The cultivation of fungi in the nest for food or defense seems to be a widespread practice among social insects.

This discovery of these oversized versions of soldier ants, whose job is to defend the nest, led researchers to create their own supersoldier ants in the lab with the help of a hormone, and, by doing so, offer an explanation for how ants, and possibly other social insects, take on specific forms with dedicated jobs within their colonies.

«On the other hand, this finding could be really important for those who want to understand the evolution of social behavior and the function of DNA methylation in insects.»

Evolutionary biologist David Queller from Rice University in Houston, Texas, whose theories on insect social behavior were an important source of inspiration for the British team, is happy to finally see them tested in the field.

To establish that it happens in nature, too, Vargo and his colleagues collected 30 colonies of the destructive Reticulitermes speratus, a Japanese species related to most common termites in the U.S. Like bees and ants, termites are social insects that have different castes for different jobs (such as workers and royalty).

In social insects, such behavior is more likely to occur in individuals whose potential for other tasks is diminished.

They therefore exhibit a level of social organisation that is intermediate between solitary insects, such as houseflies, and the highly social honeybees, which have colonies of many thousands of individuals with queens that live for several years.

Scientists have previously hypothesized that zebras» stripes evolved for one, or a combination of, four main reasons: confusing predators, protecting against disease - carrying insects, controlling body temperature and social cohesion.

This model opens new avenues for understanding the evolution of caste systems in social insects.

According to our model, the worker caste is seen as a «neuter» caste whose sexual development is suppressed due to counterbalanced maternal and paternal imprinting and opens new avenues for understanding the evolution of caste systems in social insects.

Many insects live in complex social groups, for instance, and they've had about 400 million years to cultivate their smarts.

Toyota unveiled its own version of a «smart car,» a single - seater called Smart INSECT (short for «Information Network Social Electric City Transporter»).

Social insects are ants and bees where they work together for their own survival.