Engel M S
Division of Entomology, Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center, 1460 Jayhawk Boulevard, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045-7523, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2001 Feb 13;98(4):1661-4. doi: 10.1073/pnas.98.4.1661. Epub 2001 Feb 6.
Advanced eusociality sometimes is given credit for the ecological success of termites, ants, some wasps, and some bees. Comprehensive study of bees fossilized in Baltic amber has revealed an unsuspected middle Eocene (ca. 45 million years ago) diversity of eusocial bee lineages. Advanced eusociality arose once in the bees with significant post-Eocene losses in diversity, leaving today only two advanced eusocial tribes comprising less than 2% of the total bee diversity, a trend analogous to that of hominid evolution. This pattern of changing diversity contradicts notions concerning the role of eusociality for evolutionary success in insects.
高度真社会性有时被认为是白蚁、蚂蚁、某些黄蜂和某些蜜蜂在生态上取得成功的原因。对保存在波罗的海琥珀中的蜜蜂进行的全面研究揭示了始新世中期（约4500万年前）真社会性蜜蜂谱系中未曾预料到的多样性。高度真社会性在蜜蜂中只出现过一次，在始新世之后多样性显著减少，如今只剩下两个高度真社会性的部落，占蜜蜂总多样性不到2%，这一趋势与人类进化类似。这种多样性变化的模式与关于真社会性在昆虫进化成功中所起作用的观念相矛盾。
