Caste and Ecology in the Social Insects

George F. Oster, Edward O. Wilson

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9780691023618
  9780691082103
• eBook ISBN:
  9780691209326
• Topic: Ciencias biológicas
• Subtopic: Ecología

In this pathbreaking and far-reaching work George Oster and Edward Wilson provide the first fully developed theory of caste evolution among the social insects. Furthermore, in studying the effects of natural selection in generally increasing the insects' ergonomic efficiency, they go beyond the concentration of previous researchers on the physiological mechanisms of the insects and turn our attention instead to the scale and efficiency of the insects' division of labor.



Recognizing that the efficiency of the insect colony is based on a complex fitting of the division of labor to many simultaneous needs, including those imposed by the distribution of resources and enemies around the nest, Professors Oster and Wilson are able to construct a series of mathematical models to characterize the agents of natural selection that promote particular caste systems.



The social insects play a key role in the subject of sociobiology because their social organization is so rigid and can be related to genetic evolution. Because of this important consideration, the authors' work has consequences not only for entomology but also for general evolutionary theory.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Preface
• Contents
• 1. Why Is Caste Important?
• 2. Colony Life Cycles
• 3. The Genetic Preconditions for Caste Evolution
• 4. The Biological Characteristics of Caste Systems
• 5. Caste Structure and Ergonomic Optimization
• 6. Optimum Caste Ratios
• 7. Caste in the Service of Foraging Strategy
• 8. A Critique of Optimization Theory in Evolutionary Biology
• 9. Unsolved Problems
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index