Understanding eusociality requires both proximate and ultimate thinking and due consideration of individual and colony-level interests

摘要

In his recent book, ‘The evolution of social wasps’, Hunt (2007) advocates a purely proximate approach when studying the evolutionary origins of eusociality, and he proposes a research agenda for paper wasps that focuses exclusively on how socialityevolved for the good of the colony. At the same time, he dismisses ultimate levels of explanation and the consideration of individual-level interests as a "blindered view of social evolution focused exclusively on [. . .] inclusive fitness" (p. 164), and he devotes two chapters to analysing the supposed flaws of kin selection theory and its applications. Hunt denies any explanatory power to ultimate thinking, that is attempts to understand why sociality evolved, which he sees as being merely ‘interpretations’ (p. 193)!