LIFESCI 3C03 Chapter Notes - Chapter 13: Evolutionarily Stable Strategy, Nuptial Flight, Eusociality
2 Apr 2017
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Social insects are extremely altruistic toward their colonies. In social insect colonies, a large number of individuals forego their own reproduction, devoting their lives to rearing the young of others. Facultative eusociality: each individual retains the ability to perform the full range of behaviours open to all the castes, including reproduction (totipotency) Eusociality is not limited to hymenoptera (ants, bees, wasps); it occurs in other insects, shrimps, and mole rats. Morphology: specialized depending on an individual"s caste (job) Communication: honey bee waggle dance to alert colony of food location and distance. The life cycle and natural history of a social insect. A single fertile queen begins a nest after fertilization during a nuptial flight, after which she loses her wings. Queen stores sperm to be used throughout her lifetime. Until her first clutch of worker larvae develop fully, the queen relies on fat reserves for energy, and her larvae survive off of trophic eggs she lays.
