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Abstract:
Fitness-determining interactions with microbes — in particular
fungi — have often been considered a by-product of social
evolution in insects. Here, we take the view that both beneficial
and harmful microbial consortia are major drivers of social
behaviours in many insect systems —ranging from
aggregation to eusociality. We propose evolutionary feedbacks
between the insect sociality and microbial communities that
strengthen mutualistic interactions with beneficial (dietary or
defensive) microbes and simultaneously increase the capacity
to defend against pathogens (i.e. social immunity). We
identified variation in habitat stability — as determined by
breeding site predictability and ephemerality — as a main
ecological factor that constrains these feedbacks. To test this
hypothesis we suggest following the evolution of insect social
traits upon experimental manipulation of habitat stability and microbial consortia.
