Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, 6270 University Boulevard, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc. 2011 May;86(2):475-91. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-185X.2010.00156.x. Epub 2010 Sep 14.
The role of ecology in the evolution and maintenance of arthropod sociality has received increasing research attention in recent years. In some organisms, such as halictine bees, polistine wasps, and social spiders, researchers are investigating the environmental factors that may contribute to high levels of variation in the degree of sociality exhibited both among and within species. Within lineages that include only eusocial members, such as ants and termites, studies focus more on identifying extrinsic factors that may contribute to the dramatic variation in colony size, number of queens, and division of labour that is evident across these species. In this review, I propose a comparative approach that seeks to identify environmental factors that may have a common influence across such divergent social arthropod groups. I suggest that seeking common biogeographic patterns in the distribution of social systems or key social traits may help us to identify ecological factors that play a common role in shaping the evolution of sociality across different organisms. I first review previous studies of social gradients that form along latitudinal and altitudinal axes. Within families and within species, many organisms show an increasing degree of sociality at lower latitudes and altitudes. In a smaller number of cases, organisms form larger groups or found nests cooperatively at higher latitudes and altitudes. I then describe several environmental factors that vary consistently along such gradients, including climate variables and abundance of predators, and outline their proposed role in the social systems of terrestrial arthropods. Finally, I map distributions of a social trait against several climatic factors in five case studies to demonstrate how future comparative studies could inform empirical research.
近年来，生态学在节肢动物社会性的进化和维持中的作用受到了越来越多的研究关注。在一些生物体中，例如熊蜂、褶翅小蜂和社会性蜘蛛，研究人员正在调查可能导致物种间和种内社会性程度高度变化的环境因素。在仅包括真社会性成员的进化支系中，例如蚂蚁和白蚁，研究重点更多地放在确定可能导致群体大小、女王数量和劳动分工在这些物种中明显变化的外在因素上。在这篇综述中，我提出了一种比较方法，旨在确定可能对如此不同的社会性节肢动物群体具有共同影响的环境因素。我认为，寻找社会系统或关键社会特征在分布上的共同生物地理模式，可能有助于我们确定在不同生物体中塑造社会性进化的生态因素。我首先回顾了以前关于沿纬度和海拔轴形成的社会梯度的研究。在许多生物中，沿着纬度和海拔的梯度，社会性程度逐渐增加。在少数情况下，生物体在较高的纬度和海拔形成更大的群体或合作建立巢穴。然后，我描述了沿着这些梯度一致变化的几个环境因素，包括气候变量和捕食者的丰度，并概述了它们在陆地节肢动物社会系统中的作用。最后，我在五个案例研究中将社会特征的分布映射到几个气候因素上，以展示未来的比较研究如何为实证研究提供信息。
