What is presociality?
Q: What is presociality?
A: Presociality is a term which applies to animal behaviour where animals have close family relationships and more than just sexual interactions with members of the same species, but do not form the extreme colonies of eusocial insects such as ants.
Q: What are the three essential traits of eusocial animals?
A: The three essential traits of eusocial animals are that there are multiple generations alive at the same time, there is an extreme division of labour with some animals being specialised for certain functions and some being sterile, and older animals cooperate to care for the young.
Q: Are presocial behaviours common in the animal kingdom?
A: Yes, presocial behaviour is much more common in the animal kingdom than complete eusociality. Examples include canines living in packs, numerous insects especially hymenoptera, humans, many birds, chimpanzees and many other animals displaying social behaviour.
Q: How can presociality be further divided?
A: Presociality can be further divided into subsocial (parents interact with young), parasocal (individuals of same generation live in cooperative dwelling and interact with each other), communal (each individual cares exclusively for own young), quasisocal (individuals care cooperatively for all brood) and semisocal (few individuals reproduce yet arrangement not quite eusocail).
Q: What pressures may have selected subsocail behaviour among Vespid wasps?
A: The pressures from predators and parasites may have selected subsocail behaviour among Vespid wasps as it is easier to guard eggs and grubs when mother wasp stays in nest to watch over larva if other adults stay with her. This also makes it less likely that parasites will successfully prey on nest.
Q: How does communal behavior differ from quasisocal behavior?
A: Communal behavior involves each individual caring exclusively for their own young while quasisocal behavior involves individuals caring cooperatively for all brood.
