A striking feature of hymenopterans societies is the absence of male workers. Foraging, nest building, brood care and all other activities required for the functioning of the colony are carried out by the females. These ...

Over the last two decades, there have been increasing concerns about environmental degradation and its consequences on the long-term sustainability of socio-economic systems around the world. The publication of the report ...

The question of group-living in animals has attracted a lot of research attention. Today, we have a nuanced understanding of ultimate explanations and proximate mechanisms for group-living, as well as the genetic basis for ...

Obligate nursery pollination mutualisms such as the fig–fig wasp system, with their central plant–pollinator mutualism associated with non-pollinating satellite wasp species, can function as closed system microcosms ...

It has been more than two centuries since the latitudinal pattern of increase in taxonomic richness from poles to equator was first documented. After two centuries of research, and with more than two dozen hypotheses ...

Since several decades, field crickets of the subfamily Gryllinae under order Orthoptera have been used as a model group by researchers working in the field of neuroethology, behavioural ecology and bioacoustics. Subfamily ...

Reproduction is the avenue for gaining direct fitness. But in certain species some individuals do not reproduce, instead gain indirect fitness by helping relatives to reproduce; the prime examples for this come from the ...

Macroecology is the study of relationships between organisms and the environment at large spatial and temporal scales. This field of research examines patterns in species abundance, distribution and diversity. Understanding ...

Humans directly or indirectly cause changes in the environment, and urbanisation is currently one of the most important threats to biodiversity. Urbanisation exposes organisms to novel pressures that are drastically different ...

Division of labour is a hallmark of eusocial insects and is believed to be a major factor in their evolutionary success and ecological dominance. Division of labour can be of two kinds – reproductive division of labour ...