Biological altruism, eusociality and the superorganism: a critical analysis of the role of biological altruism within eusociality research.

Abstract

In this thesis I critically assess the role of the concept of biological altruism (BA) within eusociality research by assessing the following questions: 1) Is the concept of BA a correct description of the behaviour of the non-reproductive castes in eusocial insect colonies? 2) Has the widespread use of the concept of BA been problematic for eusociality research? I argue that, not only is the concept of BA unlikely to be the correct description of the behaviour of the non-reproductive castes, but the widespread use of the concept of BA has been problematic for the field. The mainstream focus on BA led to viable alternatives, e.g. parental manipulation, superorganism, etc., receiving much less attention by researchers. However, current evidence supports the view that parental manipulation, but not BA, was the likely cause of the evolution of the non-reproductive castes. Furthermore, I develop a novel organizational approach to the superorganism and argue that colonies of the most complex eusocial insects, e.g. honey bees, are biological individuals in their own right, and thus BA is not applicable to the individual insects in those colonies.