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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Social Biology of Ropalidia Marginata: Toward Understanding the Evolution of Eusociality

The Social Biology of Ropalidia Marginata: Toward Understanding the Evolution of Eusociality

Gadagkar, Raghavendra

Hardcover

Insects & SpidersZoology

Publisher Price: $100.00

ISBN10: 0674006119
ISBN13: 9780674006119
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: Nov 30 2001
Pages: 384
Weight: 1.59
Height: 1.35 Width: 6.42 Depth: 9.50
Language: English

In this book, the biologist Raghavendra Gadagkar focuses on the single species he has worked on throughout his career. Found throughout southern India, Ropalidia marginata is a primitively eusocial wasp--a species in which queens and workers do not differ morphologically and even the latter retain the ability to reproduce. New colonies may be founded by a single fertile female or by several, which then share reproductive and worker duties.

R. marginata has provided Gadagkar with a unique opportunity to study the evolution of eusociality; its long-lived dynasties can continue almost indefinitely, as old or weakened queens are replaced by young and healthy ones and new colonies are founded throughout the year. Understanding such primitively eusocial species is crucial, Gadagkar argues, if we are to understand the evolution of the greater degrees of sociality found in other wasp species and in ants, termites, and bees. His years of study have led him to believe that ecological, physiological, and demographic factors can be more important than genetic relatedness in the selection for or against social traits.

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