The life-prolonging effects of antioxidants have long entered popular culture, but the
scientific community still debates whether free radicals and the resulting oxidative stress …

One of the central questions of ageing research is why lifespans of organisms differ so
tremendously among related taxa and, even more surprising, among members of the same …

Highlights•Social insects defy expectations of common aging theories.•No clear evidence for
or against hyperfunction or ROS theories of aging exists.•Senescence reversal when …

One major gap in the current knowledge of the molecular bases of ageing is that most of the
work has been done using short-lived model organisms such as fruitflies, nematodes, yeast …

Social insects seem to have overcome the almost universal trade-off between fecundity and
longevity as queens can be highly fecund and at the same time reach lifespans of decades …

Individual lifespans vary tremendously between and also within species, but the proximate
and ultimate causes of different ageing speeds are still not well understood. Sociality …

Analyses of senescence in social species are important to understanding how group living
influences the evolution of ageing in society members. Social insects exhibit remarkable …

Highlights•Social insect shows great intraspecific disparity of lifespan among
castes.•Senescence is widely believed to be the result of accumulating somatic …

Highlights⿢Social insects seem to lack the life history trade-off between
fecundity/longevity.⿢This apparent reversal with sociality must be tested using …

Reactive oxygen species (ROS), inevitable byproducts of aerobic metabolism, are known to
cause oxidative damage to cells and molecules. This, in turn, is widely accepted as a pivotal …