The extreme diversity of dispersal strategies in ants is unique among terrestrial animals. The
nature of ant colonies as social, perennial and sessile superorganisms is the basis for …

Social insects have the highest rates of meiotic recombination among Metazoa, but there is
considerable variation within the Hymenoptera. We synthesize the literature to investigate …

Trophallaxis is a complex social fluid exchange emblematic of social insects and of ants in
particular. Trophallaxis behaviors are present in approximately half of all ant genera …

Chemical communication is a widely used mode of communication for social insects and
has been demonstrated to be involved in many behaviours and physiological processes …

A key hypothesis for the occurrence of senescence is the decrease in selection strength due
to the decrease in the proportion of newborns from parents attaining an advanced age–the …

Ant colonies are higher-level organisms consisting of specialized reproductive and non-
reproductive individuals that differentiate early in development, similar to germ–soma …

Supercolonies of ants are perhaps the largest non-human animal societies, at their largest
spanning several millions of individuals and thousands of nests and in invasive species …

Humans and other social mammals experience isolation from their group as stressful,
triggering behavioural and physiological anomalies that reduce fitness. While social …

Resistance to and avoidance of stress slow aging and confer increased longevity in
numerous organisms. Honey bees and other superorganismal social insects have two main …

In social insect colonies, individuals need to communicate to coordinate cooperative tasks
and protect the colony and its resources against intruders. To maintain colony integrity, it can …