Insect societies
Ants, bees and termites invent the division of labour
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Eusociality — reproductive division of labour, overlapping generations and communal brood care — has arisen independently at least fifteen times, and is dominated by ants, bees, wasps and termites. Darwin saw the sterile worker caste as a possible objection to his own theory; the explanation came with kin selection, in which a worker propagates its own genes by helping close relatives. Preservation in Burmese amber gives unusually detailed Cretaceous fossils. Coevolution with flowering plants reshaped terrestrial ecosystems, and pollinating insects are today essential to around 75 per cent of the world's food crops.
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Some insects began living in colonies where only one laid eggs and the rest worked. An ant nest functions almost like a single organism. Bees and flowers evolved together: the flower gives nectar, the bee carries pollen — and both sides gain.
Connects to
Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org