Why do insects such as bees and ants work productively in groups non-stop as opposed to other insects such as grasshoppers and mosquitoes?
In: 101
Because that’s what’s worked for them so far so they can eat and have babies. It’s worked so far for the others as well.
Insects mostly behave on instinct, actions programmed by millenia of the evolution of their genetic codes. The hive gene is obviously a successful survival strategy, because it is also emulated by humans and animals.
Humans have adapted an idiosyncratic cultural hive (social) behavior. Some animals, like lions and wolves have also developed cultural hive (pack) behavior to a lesser degree. Insects however are an example of pure instinctual hive behavior.
Bees and ants are eusocial animals. The queen is fertile while the workers are sterile. They live and die for the colony.
There was recently a study that showed roughly 40% (I don’t recall the exact percentage) insects in a colony are doing nothing at any given time. They’re basically chilling?
From a point of reproduction and evolution, every colony forms a singular unit. The genes that are passed on are the queen’s, while she produces workers that allow her to fulfill that goal. The queen that produces the best and most loyal workers will get to reproduce. There is no incentive for the workers to be produced that are in any way selfish or wouldn’t do anything that’s best for the colony over themselves, there is no competition in the hierarchy, they have evolved to have the singular and common purpose of keeping the colony alive and allowing the queen to reproduce. It’s the same way that human cells in a body have no incentive to compete against each other and only serve the common goal of keeping the body alive; a neutrophil’s literal purpose is to blow up on pathogens to stop infection; a skin cell’s purpose is to die and harden to form a protective barrier.
Compare this with solitary insects or even humans; while some social behaviours exist, every unit carries its own genes and must reproduce. So when it comes down to it, natural selection says everyone must fend for themselves. And so these animals will be less social, more competitive, and are constantly in a race to one up each other.
For the record, grasshoppers get weird when in large groups. It’s like some sort of pheromone / agitation thing related to overcrowding. They get upset and then transform into locusts, then become a swarm of destruction that definitely seems to work together to eat everything in their path.
(The transformation is kinda like the rage zombie viruses).
There is an actual evolutionary answer to this. It’s a bit of a complex answer to do with genetic inheritance though.
Eusocial insects have a form of inheritance called haplodiploidy. This means that within a hive the males have one set of chromosomes while females have two. This is the determiner of sex within bees and ants.
Queens produce male drones by creating unfertilized eggs. When the eggs are fertilized they hatch into some sort of female, be it a queen, warrior or worker. The queen is fertilized by her own male drones. What this means is that female bees and ants share 75% of their DNA with other members of their hive. If they were to produce their own offspring outside of the hive they would actually be less related to them than their sisters, sharing only 50% of their DNA. This makes raising their sisters a preferable strategy in terms of genetic survival when compared to rearing their own offspring.
Probably failed on the Explain to me like I’m 5 thing, but this is the reason.
They dont all work non-stop. If you follow ants for a day you will notice that about 40 to 70 percent of the workforce are actually inactive slackers (although it is suggested that they are conserving energy for the colony).
bees and ants are superorganisms. the individuals cannot survive very long on their own. they operate as a collective. roles are strictly defined and operate in concert with the roles performed by other members of the organism to create a healthy thriving community.
Those species of bees and ants are virtually all half siblings, so they would do anything for the colony, since every member is a family member
Latest Answers