Soldiers and Medics: altruistic caste battles micro and macro enemies

昆虫群落的捍卫者献出了自己的生命，通常是在与敌人的壮观战斗中。但是，它们也可能参与了一个不太明显的对抗致病微生物的作用。与近亲住在一起容易感染一系列寄生虫和病原体。因此，群居昆虫依赖于个体和群体层面的各种防御措施来预防和对抗疾病。例如，群居昆虫抵抗疾病的一种途径是通过微生物共生体的防御作用。因此，群居昆虫是各种捕食者、病原体和机会主义者的目标。理解群居昆虫防御的进化和生态需要一个广泛的概念视角，一个收集昆虫学家、微生物学家和进化生物学家的想法和专业知识的视角。昆虫个体组织成复杂的合作群体或群体，代表了地球上生命的主要转变之一。然而，它也构成了对达尔文进化论的最大挑战之一。我提出了一个综合项目，重点关注昆虫在群体社会生活中的双重角色，目的是对昆虫利他主义的进化提供更复杂和细致的理解。

Defenders of insect colonies lay down their lives, often in spectacular battles with enemies. But, they may also be involved in a less obvious role of fighting pathogenic microorganisms. Sharing quarters with close relatives comes with susceptibility to an array of parasites and pathogens. Consequently, social insects rely on a diverse set of individual and group-level defences to prevent and combat disease. For example, one route by which social insects might resist disease is through the defensive effects of microbial symbionts. Social insects are thus targets for a heterogeneous set of predators, pathogens and opportunists. Understanding the evolution and ecology of defence in social insects requires a broad conceptual perspective, one that gathers ideas and expertise from entomologists, microbiologists, and evolutionary biologists. The organization of individual insects into cooperatively complex groups, or colonies, represents one of the major transitions of life on earth. However, it also comprises one of the greatest challenges for Darwin's theory of evolution. I have proposed an integrated program, focusing on the dual role of insect defenders in the social lives of their groups, with the goal of providing a more sophisticated and nuanced understanding of the evolution of altruism in insects.