20 replies to this topic

[TheMicroPlanet]

VS

 

[ponerinecat]

ants are more successful, but termites are better socially.

[RushmoreAnts]

In nature, you don't survive by socializing.

[TheMicroPlanet]

In nature, you don't survive by socializing.

*cough cough* multicellularity *cough cough*

[ponerinecat]

Ants conquer everything, but in terms of eusociality termites reign supreme.

[TheMicroPlanet]

Ants conquer everything, but in terms of eusociality termites reign supreme.

Being a lover of microbiology, the termite hindgut is a paradise for me.

[RushmoreAnts]

 

In nature, you don't survive by socializing.

*cough cough* multicellularity *cough cough*

 

I meant individual organisms.

[TheMicroPlanet]

 

 

In nature, you don't survive by socializing.

*cough cough* multicellularity *cough cough*

 

I meant individual organisms.

 

*cough cough* fish swimming in schools to deter predators *cough cough* soil amoebae combining into slime mold when food is scarce *cough cough* literally every eusocial insect *cough cough* animals that hunt in packs *cough cough* my throat hurts *cough cough* 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RushmoreAnts]

 

 

 

In nature, you don't survive by socializing.

*cough cough* multicellularity *cough cough*

 

I meant individual organisms.

 

*cough cough* fish swimming in schools to deter predators *cough cough* soil amoebae combining into slime mold when food is scarce *cough cough* literally every eusocial insect *cough cough* animals that hunt in packs *cough cough* my throat hurts *cough cough* 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ok, I meant individual species. Fish swim in schools to avoid being eaten by other animals, and pack hunting animals eat other animals.

[TheMicroPlanet]

 

 

 

 

In nature, you don't survive by socializing.

*cough cough* multicellularity *cough cough*

 

I meant individual organisms.

 

*cough cough* fish swimming in schools to deter predators *cough cough* soil amoebae combining into slime mold when food is scarce *cough cough* literally every eusocial insect *cough cough* animals that hunt in packs *cough cough* my throat hurts *cough cough* 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ok, I meant individual species. Fish swim in schools to avoid being eaten by other animals, and pack hunting animals eat other animals.

 

*wheezes* Li...line....Linepithema hu...humi...humile.... *gasps*

[RushmoreAnts]

That's just one species. I meant in general.

Edited by AntsDakota, January 13 2020 - 4:20 PM.

[RushmoreAnts]

*wheezes* Li...line....Linepithema hu...humi...humile.... *gasps*

Ok... don't die on me here, I've got enough problems.... 

[TheMicroPlanet]

That's just one species. I meant in general.

Well you have a lot of successful eusocial species to choose from. I mean, Camponotus alone has ~1000 species.

Edited by TheMicroPlanet, January 13 2020 - 4:29 PM.

[ponerinecat]

Symbiosis. Even between plants and animals.

Done.

[TheMicroPlanet]

 

*wheezes* Li...line....Linepithema hu...humi...humile.... *gasps*

Ok... don't die on me here, I've got enough problems.... 

 

Yeah if I died that'd be a big problem for me too 

Edited by TheMicroPlanet, January 13 2020 - 4:30 PM.

[RushmoreAnts]

Just don't trust everyone you meet. One of 'em might get ya.

 

That's just one species. I meant in general.

Well you have a lot of successful eusocial species to choose from. I mean, Camponotus alone has ~1000 species.

 

[TheMicroPlanet]

Termite colonies have backup queens/kings, right?

[ponerinecat]

Termite colonies have backup queens/kings, right?

yes. workers can turn into queens and kings, as can soldiers.

[OhNoNotAgain]

https://getpocket.co...the-friendliest

 

 "The assumption was that difficult conditions encouraged species to evolve sociable behaviors (at least toward relatives). But what if this presumed causality had it backward? By analyzing the historical migrations of birds, the researchers discovered that species that had already evolved cooperative behaviors in a benign environment were twice as likely to have moved into a harsh one than non-cooperative breeders."

[Serafine]

 

Who does eusociality better: Ants or Termites?

 

The comparison doesn't even make sense.

 

Both groups show an ENORMOUS spectrum of social behavoir, with some ant species being encredibly efficient to the point where they behave as a single organism (driver ants, weaver ants) and others (like Nothomyrmecia) barely even qualifying as eusocial.

Most termite species have secondary reproductives, some don't even have queens at all. Termites don't have legless larval stages, their offspring are just tinier versions of the adults and not even remotely as helpless as ant brood.

Termites are (mostly) "herbivores" while most ants are definitely carnivorous. Termites usually literally live inside their food source (except for harvester termites which are fairly odd by termite standards) while ants have to go out and fight with other colonies and predators (that's even true for harbivour ants).

 

Ants and Termites usually have very different interactions with their environment and as such require different solutions which often means different degrees of social interaction (in ants there's a lot of cases where species have lost most of their original social behavior, particularly when it comes to foraging strategies).

The only species that are remotely comparable are leafcutter ants and harvester termites, both outlyers in their own groups.

 

 

In nature, you don't survive by socializing.

 

Actually, you do. On average social species are MUCH more successful than their solitary counterparts.

You don't even need to look further than ants and termites which represent a tiny fraction of the land-based arthropod diversity but make up most of it's biomass.

In tropical zones ants alone make up 25% of the entire land-based animal biomass, termites weight in at around 10% - so the two large eusocial insect groups alone make up over a third of the tropical land-animal biomass.

 

Edited by Serafine, January 14 2020 - 7:25 AM.