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© 1995 International Society for Behavioral Ecology

research-article

Forum

The eusociality continuum

Paul W. Sherman1, Eileen A. Lacey2, Hudson K. Reeve3 and Laurent Keller4

1Section of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853. USA 2Animal Behavior Group, University of California, Davis, CA 95616. USA 3Section of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA 4Zoological Institute, Bern University, Ethologische Station Hasli, CH-3032 Hinterkappelen, Switzerland and Institute of Zoology and Animal Ecology, University of Lausanne, Batiment de Biologie, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland

ABSTRACT

Eusocial societies are traditionally characterized by a reproductive division of labor, an overlap of generations, and cooperative care of the breeders' young. Eusociality was once thought to occur only in termites, ants, and some bee and wasp species, but striking evolutionary convergences have recently become apparent between the societies of these insects and those of cooperatively breeding birds and mammals. These parallels have blurred distinctions between cooperative breeding and eusociality, leading to calls for either drastically restricting or expanding usage of these terms. We favor the latter approach. Cooperative breeding and eusociality are not discrete phenomena, but rather form a continuum of fundamentally similar social systems whose main differences lie in the distribution of lifetime reproductive success among group members. Therefore we propose to array vertebrate and invertebrate cooperative breeders along a common axis, representing a standardized measure of reproductive variance, and to drop such (loaded) terms as "primitive" and "advanced" eusociality. The terminology we propose unites all occurrences of alloparental helping of kin under a single theoretical umbrella (e.g., Hamilton's rule). Thus, cooperatively breeding vertebrates can be regarded as eusocial, just as eusocial invertebrates are cooperative breeders. We believe this integrated approach will foster potentially revealing cross-taxon comparisons, which are essential to understanding social evolution in birds, mammals, and insects.

Key words: avian eusociality, cooperative breeding, eusociality, mammalian eusociality, reproductive skews, social system convergence. [Behav Ecol 6: 102–108 (1995)].


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