title: Eusocial insects as superorganisms: Insights from metabolic theory.
abstract: We recently published a paper titled "Energetic Basis of Colonial Living in Social Insects" showing that basic features of whole colony physiology and life history follow virtually the same size-dependencies as unitary organisms when a colony's mass is the summed mass of individuals. We now suggest that these results are evidence, not only for the superorganism hypothesis, but also for colony level selection. In addition, we further examine the implications of these results for the metabolism and lifetime reproductive success of eusocial insect colonies. We conclude by discussing the mechanisms which may underlie the observed mass-dependence of survival, growth and reproduction in these colonies.
authors.forename: James F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Gillooly
authors.forename: Chen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kaspari
references.citation: PLoS Biol. 2004 Sep;2(9):E248
references.pmid: 15328531
references.citation: Age (Dordr). 2005 Sep;27(3):241-8
references.pmid: 23598656
references.citation: Ecol Lett. 2008 Jul;11(7):710-6
references.pmid: 18422635
references.citation: J Insect Sci. 2005;5:9
references.pmid: 16299599
references.citation: Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 2007 Jun;292(6):R2115-21
references.pmid: 17234960
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Feb 23;107(8):3634-8
references.pmid: 20133582
references.citation: Science. 1969 Apr 18;164(3877):262-70
references.pmid: 5776636
references.citation: Trends Ecol Evol. 2006 Feb;21(2):57-60
references.pmid: 16701471
references.citation: Trends Ecol Evol. 2006 Jun;21(6):303-8
references.pmid: 16769429
references.citation: Science. 1978 Apr 28;200(4340):441-3
references.pmid: 17757302
references.citation: J Insect Physiol. 2003 Sep;49(9):881-9
references.pmid: 16256690
references.citation: J Theor Biol. 1989 Feb 8;136(3):337-56
references.pmid: 2811397
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2002 Feb 19;99 Suppl 1:2473-8
references.pmid: 11875197