Kin selection, species richness and community

Abstract

Can evolutionary and ecological dynamics operating at one level of the biological hierarchy affect the dynamics and structure at other levels? In social insects, strong hostility towards unrelated individuals can evolve as a kinselected counter-adaptation to intraspecific social parasitism. This aggression in turn might cause intraspecific competition to predominate over interspecific competition, permitting coexistence with other social insect species. In other words, kin selection-a form of intra-population dynamics-might enhancethe species richness of the community, a higher-level structure. The converse effect, from higher to lower levels, might also operate, whereby strong interspecific competition may limit the evolution of selfish individual traits. If the latter effect were to prove more important, it would challenge the common view that intra-population dynamics (via individual or gene selection) is the main driver of evolution. © 2013 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.