Inclusive fitness theory and eusociality

Abbot, Patrick; Abe, Jun; Alcock, John; Alizon, Samuel; Alpedrinha, Joao A. C.; Andersson, Malte; Jean Baptiste Andre,; Minus Van Baalen,; Balloux, Francois; Balshine, Sigal; Barton, Nick; Beukeboom, Leo W.; Biernaskie, Jay M.; Bilde, Trine; Borgia, Gerald; Breed, Michael; Brown, Sam; Bshary, Redouan; Buckling, Angus; Burley, Nancy T.; Burton Chellew, Max N.; Cant, Michael A.; Chapuisat, Michel; Charnov, Eric L.; Tim Clutton Brock,; Cockburn, Andrew; Cole, Blaine J.; Colegrave, Nick; Cosmides, Leda; Couzin, Iain D.; Coyne, Jerry A.; Creel, Scott; Crespi, Bernard; Curry, Robert L.; Dall, Sasha R. X.; Day, Troy; Dickinson, Janis L.; Lee Alan Dugatkin,; Claire El Mouden,; Emlen, Stephen T.; Evans, Jay; Ferriere, Regis; Field, Jeremy; Foitzik, Susanne; Foster, Kevin; Foster, William A.; Fox, Charles W.; Gadau, Juergen; Gandon, Sylvain; Gardner, Andy; Gardner, Michael G.; Getty, Thomas; Goodisman, Michael A. D.; Grafen, Alan; Grosberg, Rick; Grozinger, Christina M.; Pierre Henri Gouyon,; Gwynne, Darryl; Harvey, Paul H.; Hatchwell, Ben J.; Heinze, Jürgen; Helantera, Heikki; Helms, Ken R.; Hill, Kim; Jiricny, Natalie; Johnstone, Rufus A.; Kacelnik, Alex; Toby Kiers, E.; Kokko, Hanna; Komdeur, Jan; Korb, Judith; Kronauer, Daniel; Kümmerli, Rolf; Lehmann, Laurent; Linksvayer, Timothy A.; Lion, Sébastien; Lyon, Bruce; Marshall, James A. R.; Mcelreath, Richard; Michalakis, Yannis; Michod, Richard E.; Mock, Douglas; Monnin, Thibaud; Montgomerie, Robert; Moore, Allen J.; Mueller, Ulrich G.; Noë, Ronald; Okasha, Samir; Pamilo, Pekka; Parker, Geoff A.; Pedersen, Jes S.; Pen, Ido; Pfennig, David; Queller, David C.; Rankin, Daniel J.; Reece, Sarah E.; Reeve, Hudson K.; Reuter, Max; Roberts, Gilbert; Robson, Simon K. A.; Roze, Denis; Rousset, Francois; Rueppell, Olav; Sachs, Joel L.; Santorelli, Lorenzo; Paul Schmid Hempel,; Schwarz, Michael P.; Tom Scott Phillips,; Janet Shellmann Sherman,; Sherman, Paul W.; Shuker, David M.; Smith, Jeff; Spagna, Joseph C.; Strassmann, Beverly; Suarez, Andrew V.; Sundström, Liselotte; Taborsky, Michael; Taylor, Peter; Thompson, Graham; Tooby, John; Tsutsui, Neil D.; Tsuji, Kazuki; Turillazzi, Stefano; Úbeda, Francisco; Vargo, Edward L.; Voelkl, Bernard; Wenseleers, Tom; West, Stuart A.; Mary Jane West Eberhard,; Westneat, David F.; Wiernasz, Diane C.; Wild, Geoff; Wrangham, Richard; Young, Andrew J.; Zeh, David W.; Zeh, Jeanne A.; Zink, Andrew

Abstract Nowak et al.1 argue that inclusive fitness theory has been of little value in explaining the natural world, and that it has led to negligible progress in explaining the evolution of eusociality. However, we believe that their arguments are based upon a misunderstanding of evolutionary theory and a misrepresentation of the empirical literature. We will focus our comments on three general issues.

Inclusive fitness theory and eusociality / Patrick Abbot, Jun Abe, John Alcock, Samuel Alizon, Joao A. C. Alpedrinha, Malte Andersson, Jean-Baptiste Andre, Minus van Baalen, Francois Balloux, Sigal Balshine, Nick Barton, Leo W. Beukeboom, Jay M. Biernaskie, Trine Bilde, Gerald Borgia, Michael Breed, Sam Brown, Redouan Bshary, Angus Buckling, Nancy T. Burley, et al.. - In: NATURE. - ISSN 0028-0836. - STAMPA. - 466:(2011), pp. 1057-1062.