Soldiers and Medics: altruistic caste battles micro and macro enemies

昆虫殖民地的捍卫者牺牲了他们的生命，经常在与敌人的壮观战斗中。但是，它们也可能参与对抗病原微生物的不太明显的作用。与近亲同住一室容易感染一系列寄生虫和病原体。因此，社会性昆虫依赖于各种各样的个体和群体水平的防御来预防和对抗疾病。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，社会性昆虫是一组异质的捕食者，病原体和机会的目标。理解社会昆虫的进化和防御生态学需要一个广泛的概念视角，一个从昆虫学家，微生物学家和进化生物学家那里收集想法和专业知识的视角。个体昆虫组织成合作复杂的群体，或殖民地，代表了地球上生命的主要转变之一。然而，这也是对达尔文进化论的最大挑战之一。我提出了一个综合计划，重点是昆虫捍卫者在其群体的社会生活中的双重作用，其目标是提供一个更复杂和细致入微的理解昆虫利他主义的进化。

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.