PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
Sociality underpins major evolutionary transitions and significantly influences the structure and function of complex ecosystems. Social insects, seen as the pinnacle of sociality, have traits like obligate sterility that are considered \'master traits\', used as single phenotypic measures of this complexity. However, evidence is mounting that completely aligning both phenotypic and evolutionary social complexity, and having obligate sterility central to both, is erroneous. We hypothesize that obligate and functional sterility are insufficient in explaining the diversity of phenotypic social complexity in social insects. To test this, we explore the relative importance of these sterility traits in an understudied but diverse taxon: the termites. We compile the largest termite social complexity dataset to date, using specimen and literature data. We find that although functional and obligate sterility explain a significant proportion of variance, neither trait is an adequate singular proxy for the phenotypic social complexity of termites. Further, we show both traits have only a weak association with the other social complexity traits within termites. These findings have ramifications for our general comprehension of the frameworks of phenotypic and evolutionary social complexity, and their relationship with sterility.
摘要：
社会性支撑着重大的进化转变，并显着影响复杂生态系统的结构和功能。社会性昆虫,被视为社会性的巅峰，具有诸如专性不育之类的特征，被认为是“主特征”，用作这种复杂性的单一表型度量。然而,越来越多的证据表明，表型和进化社会复杂性都完全一致，两者都有强制性不育，是错误的。我们假设专性和功能性不育不足以解释社会性昆虫表型社会复杂性的多样性。为了测试这个，我们探索了这些不育特征在一个未被充分研究但多样化的分类群：白蚁中的相对重要性。我们编制了迄今为止最大的白蚁社会复杂性数据集，使用标本和文献资料。我们发现，尽管功能性和专性不育解释了很大一部分方差，对于白蚁的表型社会复杂性，这两种特征都不是一个足够的单一代理。Further,我们表明，这两个特征与白蚁中的其他社会复杂性特征仅有弱关联。这些发现对我们对表型和进化社会复杂性框架的一般理解产生了影响，以及它们与不育的关系。
