title: Life history evolution in social insects: a female perspective.
abstract: Social insects are known for their unusual life histories with fecund, long-lived queens and sterile, short-lived workers. We review ultimate factors underlying variation in life history strategies in female social insects, whose social life reshapes common trade-offs, such as the one between fecundity and longevity. Interspecific life history variation is associated with colony size, mediated by changes in division of labour and extrinsic mortality. In addition to the ratio of juvenile to adult mortality, social factors such as queen number influence life history trajectories. We discuss two hypotheses explaining why queen fecundity and lifespan is higher in single-queen societies and suggest further research directions on the evolution of life history variation in social insects.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Zoology, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Johannes-von-Müller-Weg 6, 55128 Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Matteo Antoine
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Negroni
authors.affiliation: Institute of Zoology, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Johannes-von-Müller-Weg 6, 55128 Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Evelien
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Jongepier
authors.affiliation: Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F), Molecular Ecology, Senckenberganlage 25, Frankfurt am Main 60325, Germany.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Feldmeyer
authors.affiliation: Theoretical Research in Evolutionary Life Sciences (TRES), University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 7, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Boris H
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Kramer
authors.affiliation: Institute of Zoology, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Johannes-von-Müller-Weg 6, 55128 Mainz, Germany. Electronic address: foitzik@uni-mainz.de.
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Foitzik
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D005260:Female; D005298:Fertility; D007313:Insecta / Q000502:physiology*; D000071421:Life History Traits; D008136:Longevity; D012919:Social Behavior