Highlights•Clear, consistent social terminology allows similar phenotypes to be described
and phylogenetically analysed across taxa.•Social terminology can be evaluated in …

Division of labour is central to the ecological success of eusocial insects, yet the
evolutionary factors driving increases in complexity in division of labour are little known. The …

Although indirect selection through relatives (kin selection) can explain the evolution of
effectively sterile offspring that act as helpers at the nest (eusociality) in the ants, bees, and …

The size–complexity rule posits that the evolution of larger cooperative groups should favour
more division of labour. Examples include more cell types in larger multicellular organisms …

I present evidence that humans have evolved convergently to social insects with regard to a
large suite of social, ecological, and reproductive phenotypes. Convergences between …

According to Michener's paradox, most altruistic groups in nature should be small and large
groups should not exist. This is because per capita productivity is thought to decrease as …

The shift to a pollen diet and the evolution of more highly organized societies, ie, eusocial,
were key milestones in bee diversification over their evolutionary history, culminating in a …

Highlights•Contributions to different tasks are often positively correlated in helpers.•The
correlations were partially positive in the naked mole-rat.•Age-or size-based polyethisms …

The evolution of effectively sterile workers in the aculeate Hymenoptera (ants, bees, and
stinging wasps) requires that a female's life span largely overlap that of her daughters. The …

Sucrose represents an important carbohydrate source for most bee species. In the Western
honeybee (Apis mellifera) it was shown that individual sucrose responsiveness correlates …