© 1972 by The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology
Theoretical Issues Concerning the Evolution and Development of Behavior in Social Insects
Department of Psychology, Hunter College of The City University of New York, and Department of Animal Behavior, The American Museum of Natural History New York, New York 10024
The major theoretical contributions concerning the behavior of social insects reflect a dichotomous predilection, in that most studies have been approached from either an ontogenetic perspective or from an evolutionary perspective. Wheeler and, to a greater extent, Schneirla have concentrated on an analytic and developmental approach, aimed at explicating how processes of reciprocal stimulation among all members of the colony serve to keep the individuals together and functioning as an integrated unit. Hamilton, by contrast, has emphasized the evolutionary approach, by considering the adaptive value of the genetic mechanism of sex determination that occurs in the insect order Hymenoptera. Attempting to explain the occurrence of any behavior pattern only in terms of its adaptive value is, in a sense arguing from hindsight, because there is no way of predicting in advance whether any particular adaptive characteristic will indeed evolve. Furthermore, evolution selects for reproductively adaptive outcomes, and not for any particular set of mechanisms and processes tint produce the adaptive phenotype. As a result, an understanding of these mechanisms and processes can only come from developmental studies of behavior. It is concluded, therefore, that ontogenetic and phylogenetic approaches are complementary and that both are necessary for a complete understanding of the evolution and development of behavior.