Quote:
Originally Posted by jwb
alright so basically if I understand you correctly you're saying kin selection doesn't explain super colonies yet you also acknowledge that super colonies exist. So apparently there is for the time being, a sort of wrinkle in that specific way of explaining all of evolution.
You don't think group selection is a good explaination. But you also don't have any idea what a good explaination would be. Is that more or less where we're at?
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This seems about right, except for the bolded part.
I have suggested a possible explanation. Ants being unable to recognize kin-nestmates from non-kin-nestmates could (should?) turn them altruistic. Generally, I would expect ants to evolve this ability, but there may be some constraint to its evolution.
However, not being an ant expert, I am unsure of how good that suggested explanation is. Perhaps we should just shoot an email to Bert Hölldobler and ask him what he thinks.