Both the magnitude and the urgency of the task of assessing global biodiversity require that we make the most of what we know through the use of estimation and extrapolation. Likewise, future biodiversity inventories need to be designed around the use of effective sampling and estimation procedures, especially for 'hyperdiverse' groups of terrestrial organisms, such as arthropods, nematodes, fungi, and microorganisms. The challenge of estimating patterns of species richness from samples can be separated into (i) the problem of estimating local species richness, and (ii) the problem of estimating the distinctness, or complementarity, of species assemblages. These concepts apply on a wide range of spatial, temporal, and functional scales. Local richness can be estimated by extrapolating species accumulation curves, fitting parametric distributions of relative abundance, or using non-parametric techniques based on the distribution of individuals among species or of species among samples. We present several of these methods and examine their effectiveness for an example data set. We present a simple measure of complementarity, with some biogeographic examples, and outline the difficult problem of estimating complementarity from samples. Finally, we discuss the importance of using 'reference' sites (or sub-sites) to assess the true richness and composition of species assemblages, to measure ecologically significant ratios between unrelated taxa, to measure taxon/sub-taxon (hierarchical) ratios, and to 'calibrate' standardized sampling methods. This information can then be applied to the rapid, approximate assessment of species richness and faunal or floral composition at 'comparative' sites.

Estimating Terrestrial Biodiversity through Extrapolation

Beginning with Emlen (1966) and MacArthur and Pianka (1966) and extending through the last ten years, several authors have sought to predict the foraging behavior of animals by means of mathematical models. These models are very similar,in that they all assume that the fitness of a foraging animal is a function of the efficiency of foraging measured in terms of some "currency" (Schoener, 1971) -usually energy- and that natural selection has resulted in animals that forage so as to maximize this fitness. As a result of these similarities, the models have become known as "optimal foraging models"; and the theory that embodies them, "optimal foraging theory." The situations to which optimal foraging theory has been applied, with the exception of a few recent studies, can be divided into the following four categories: (1) choice by an animal of which food types to eat (i.e., optimal diet); (2) choice of which patch type to feed in (i.e., optimal patch choice); (3) optimal allocation of time to different patches; and (4) optimal patterns and speed of movements. In this review we discuss each of these categories separately, dealing with both the theoretical developments and the data that permit tests of the predictions. The review is selective in the sense that we emphasize studies that either develop testable predictions or that attempt to test predictions in a precise quantitative manner. We also discuss what we see to be some of the future developments in the area of optimal foraging theory and how this theory can be related to other areas of biology. Our general conclusion is that the simple models so far formulated are supported are supported reasonably well by available data and that we are optimistic about the value both now and in the future of optimal foraging theory. We argue, however, that these simple models will requre much modification, espicially to deal with situations that either cannot easily be put into one or another of the above four categories or entail currencies more complicated that just energy.

Citation classic - optimal foraging - a selective review of theory and tests

In his introduction to this detailed survey of knowledge of insect societies, the author points out that research on insect sociology has proceeded in three phases, the natural history phase, the physiological phase and the population-biology phase. Advances in the first two phases have permitted embarkation in the third phase on a more rigorous theory of social evolution based on population genetics and writing this book, the author wished to relate the three phases of research on insects and to express insect sociology as population biology. A glossary of terms, a considerable bibliography and a general index are included. Other CABI sites 

The Insect Societies

Eusociality, in which some individuals reduce their own lifetime reproductive potential to raise the offspring of others, underlies the most advanced forms of social organization and the ecologically dominant role of social insects and humans. For the past four decades kin selection theory, based on the concept of inclusive fitness, has been the major theoretical attempt to explain the evolution of eusociality. Here we show the limitations of this approach. We argue that standard natural selection theory in the context of precise models of population structure represents a simpler and superior approach, allows the evaluation of multiple competing hypotheses, and provides an exact framework for interpreting empirical observations.

https://faculty.washington.edu/beecher/Nowak%20etal%20-%20evolution%20of%20eusociality%20-%20Nature%202010.pdf

The evolution of eusociality

As more complete genomes are sequenced, phylogenetic analysis is entering a new era — that of phylogenomics. One branch of this expanding field aims to reconstruct the evolutionary history of organisms on the basis of the analysis of their genomes. Recent studies have demonstrated the power of this approach, which has the potential to provide answers to several fundamental evolutionary questions. However, challenges for the future have also been revealed. The very nature of the evolutionary history of organisms and the limitations of current phylogenetic reconstruction methods mean that part of the tree of life might prove difficult, if not impossible, to resolve with confidence.

/pdf/phylogenomics-and-the-reconstruction-of-the-tree-of-life-4ket7rjhwa.pdf

Phylogenomics and the reconstruction of the tree of life.

Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution, quipped Theodosius Dobzhansky. The theory of evolution argues that each biological species was not suddenly and independently created but that all life forms are interrelated by virtue of having descended from common ancestors through the accumulation of modifications. Indeed, nothing we know about living organisms would make any sense if they were not so interrelated. And the theory that biological species are descended from common ancestors provides an indispensable heuristic to understand why living organisms are what they are and do what they do.

Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution

The bees' spontaneous preferences toward various black-and-white patterns were studied using a multiple-choice test procedure. The patterns are presented on vertical planes, and the bees' choices at a fixed distance from the patterns are recorded. To exclude a possible influence of the bees' previous experience with natural flowers, the bees are trained to randomized checkerboard patterns prior to testing them with sets of other patterns. We find that, when the test patterns are of the same kind, but differ in their spatial frequencies, the bees prefer low over high frequencies. However, when the patterns differ in type, the bees express, regardless of spatial frequency, a positive preference for patterns containing radiating elements, and a negative preference for patterns containing circular elements or elements arranged at random. We find, in addition, that symmetrical patterns are more attractive than less symmetrical or non-symmetrical patterns. We propose that bees respond innately to some features of natural flowers, resulting in a spontaneous preference for radiating, as well as symmetrical patterns.

/pdf/shape-vision-in-bees-innate-preference-for-flower-like-3lrbcwmfq2.pdf

Shape vision in bees: innate preference for flower-like patterns

Preface Part I: Introduction 1. A Primer of Eusociality 2. In Praise of Ropalidia Part II: Social Biology 3. Some Methodological Necessities 4. Natural History 5. Behavioral Caste Differentiation 6. Dominance Behavior and Regulation of Worker Activity 7. Age and Division of Labor Part III: The Evolution of Eusociality 8. The Theoretical Framework 9. Genetic Predisposition I: Intracolony Genetic Relatedness 10. Genetic Predisposition II: Kin and Nestmate Recognition 11. Ecological Predisposition 12. Physiological Predisposition 13. Demographic Predisposition 14. Synthesis 15. Factors That Remain to Be Explored Part IV: Beyond Ropalidia marginata: Social Evolution, Forward and Reverse 16. A Route to Sociality 17. The Evolution of Caste Polymorphism 18. Reverse Social Evolution Summary References Index

The social biology of Ropalidia marginata : toward understanding the evolution of eusociality

Delineation of the selective pressures responsible for the evolution of sterile worker castes found in social insect colonies remains a major unsolved problem in evolutionary biology. There has therefore been a great deal of interest in suggesting ways by which the inclusive fitness of sterile workers can potentially be larger than those of solitary nest-builders. Queller's (1989) head-start hypothesis (Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 86, 3224) suggests that workers may gain relatively more inclusive fitness because they have access to young of various ages which can be quickly brought to the age of independence, whereas a solitary foundress has to survive for the entire duration of the development of her brood. I argue here that Queller's quantitative analysis is incorrect because it gives an unfair advantage to workers, either by giving full credit of rearing an offspring to a worker who only cared for it for a short while or, by assuming that a worker can do much more work per unit time than a solitary foundress. I show, however, that workers do indeed have an advantage over solitary foundresses because they have assured fitness returns, even if in small amounts, for short periods of work. This results from a different reckoning from that used by Queller and gives a more moderate advantage, arising essentially from saving the wasted effort that occurs when lone foundress nests fail. Using field and laboratory data on the primitively eusocial wasp Ropalidia marginata, and re-analysing data on the four species of polistine wasps used by Queller, I show that such an `assured fitness returns' model provides a selective pressure for the evolution of worker behaviour which is at least about as strong as that of haplodiploidy, but free from such requirements of the latter as high levels of worker-brood genetic relatedness and ability of workers to manipulate brood sex ratios.

/pdf/evolution-of-eusociality-the-advantage-of-assured-fitness-55ifpi76v8.pdf

Evolution of eusociality: the advantage of assured fitness returns

Animals that live in colonies of individuals of more than one generation, cooperate in ,brood care, and relegate reproduction to one or a small number Of colqnj members are said to represent that pinnacle of social evolution, (Michener 1969, Wilson 1971). Except for the naked mole-rat, which lives in uuderground tunnels in Africa (Jarvis 1981), eusociality has been achieved only by ants and termites and by some bees and wasps. With the exception of one or a few spe- ' cies of sphecids (Matthews 1968a, this volume), all eusocial wasps belong to the family Vespidae. Thi:; family has traditionally been divided into three subfamilies, . namely Stenogastrinae, Polistinae, and Vespinae (Richards 1962, 1978a,b). Carpenter's (1982) recent classification recognizes three additional subfamilies within the family Vespidaenamely, Eumeninae, Masarinae, and Euparagiinae-but eusociality is restricted to the three previously mentioned subfamilies.

Raghavendra Gadagkar

Papers

Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution

Shape vision in bees: innate preference for flower-like patterns

The social biology of Ropalidia marginata : toward understanding the evolution of eusociality

Evolution of eusociality: the advantage of assured fitness returns

Belonogaster, Mischocyttarus, Parapolybia, and Independent-founding Ropalidia