Article ID: CBB001451769

R. A. Fisher and Social Insects: The Fisher-Darwin Model of the Evolution of Eusociality (2014)

unapi

Fisher recognized that the evolution of social insect colonies needed explaining, a point which Charles Darwin had avoided discussing in detail. Fisher, in his 1930 book The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection, outlined in detail how eusociality could evolve, and developed a verbal model by connecting selection on fecundity with the sterility of workers. Fisher saw social insect colonies as harmonious units, in contrast to human societies that exhibit intra-communal conflict. Fisher's development of the model was strongly influenced by his correspondence with Leonard Darwin, and so I call it the Fisher-Darwin model. However, Fisher was not influenced by Lamarckian views on the evolution of social insects that were common at that time. The Fisher-Darwin model presages almost exactly the mathematical model recently proposed by Nowak and colleagues.

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Authors & Contributors
Esposito, Maurizio
Thompson, Paul Murray
Aylward, Alex
Kolchinsky, E. I.
Araújo, Leonardo A. L.
Travis, Joseph
Concepts
Evolution
Biology
Darwinism
Genetics
Natural selection
Philosophy of biology
Time Periods
20th century
19th century
18th century
Ancient
21st century
20th century, early
Places
Great Britain
Galapagos Islands
Ukraine
United States
Japan
Germany
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