Imperialism: Historical and Biological Perspectives Imperialism evokes images of past grandeur, expansive landholdings and wealth that do not seem to be conducive to modern-day existence. Yet as a general paradigm of behavior, imperialism may be more ubiquitous and inherent than first glance would suggest. By drawing analogy between the actions of historically imperialistic nations and bee colonies, a universal “imperialism” emerges, spanning history and nature. In the Roman Empire and current
ants by E.O. Wilson seemed to confirm this, as closely related sister ants (as well as other haplodiploids like bees) exhibited a large degree of eusociality. However, the lack of eusocial behavior in some haplodiploids, like termites, led Wilson, Nowak, and Tarnita to revise the theory of inclusive fitness in their paper “The Evolution of Eusociality”. This paper, which rested on the widely dismissed notion of group selection, met harsh criticism from the scientific community. Despite this pushback
al., 2013). Apis mellifera, commonly known as the European or western honey bee is a eusocial insect. Eusociality is a term used to describe living in cooperative groups in which one female and several males are reproductively active (Winston, 1981). All the non-breeding individuals of the group care for the young or protect and provide for the whole group. With these insects practicing eusociality, their hives contain one queen, a fertile female, who has all the offspring in the colony. The hive contains
Ants and aphids are two highly common and successful insect groups that often occur in the same habitats which greatly increases their chances of interacting with one another (Stadler and Dixon 2005). The outcome of these interactions can be either negative (predatory) or positive (mutualistic) depending on what each partner can offer to the other (Stadler and Dixon 2005). Mutualism is defined as an interaction between two species that has a reciprocal positive effect on the overall fitness of both