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Self Organization and Adaptation in Insect Societies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2023

Robert E. Page Jr.  and
Sandra D. Mitchell
Robert E. Page Jr.
Affiliation:
University of California, Davis and University of California, San Diego
Sandra D. Mitchell
Affiliation:
University of California, Davis and University of California, San Diego
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Extract

The social organization of insect colonies has fascinated biologists and natural historians for centuries. Aristotle wrote in History of Animals about a division of labor among workers within the hive that is based on age. He observed that the field bees foraging for nectar and pollen have less “hair” on their bodies than the hive bees that care for young larvae and tend the nest. He concluded that the more pubescent hive bees must be older. We now know that, in fact, the field bees are older and have less hair because the hairs break off as the bees age. The phenomenon of age related changes in behavior, age-polyethism, is now well documented for many social insects (Oster and Wilson 1978).

Evidence of the ecological success of social insects is inescapable. Virtually everywhere you look you see them or the results of their activities.

Type
Part VII. Self-Organization, Selection and Evolution
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1990 , Issue 2: Volume Two: Symposia and Invited Papers 1990 , 1990 , pp. 289 - 298
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1991

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Footnotes

1

This work was funded by National Science Foundation Grants BNS-8719283 and BNS-9096139 to R.E. Page. S. D. Mitchell thanks the Population Biology Center, University of California, Davis, and the University of California Chancellor’s Summer Faculty Fellowship for partial support.

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