They are very good at understanding the secrets of the organisation of the community of social insects so as to oust them in order to exploit and manipulate them. They are the inquilines, a specific category of parasites that can help us to better understand the strategies implemented by the social insects for their success and for this reason they represent an excellent model of study to understand how their social behaviour works and evolves. This is explained by the study carried out by the research group of the Department of Biology, coordinated by Rita Cervo, in collaboration with the Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research of the University College London, published in the scientific journal Philosophical Transaction of the Royal Society B (“Inquiline social parasites as tools to unlock the secrets of insect sociality”).
“The societies of social insects are extremely complex and equally efficient organisations,” says Cervo, professor of Zoology of the University of Florence. Their success is based, among other things, on organisational and communication skills that we do not fully know.”
“The model of the inquiline is useful for various reasons,” explains Alessandro Cini, a Unifi research doctor and member of the University College London. The inquiline manages to implement effective evolutionary strategies to exploit the host when it comes into contact with the host species’ colony, providing the researcher with interesting research ideas. In addition, inquilines and hosts are often closely related, which facilitates the comparison between the two species and the understanding of how the parasite manages to exploit the host. Finally, the inquiline parasites have evolved into many species of ants, wasps and bees, and it is thus possible to grasp the secrets of such different societies.”
“Social insects carry out essential tasks for our ecosystems — comments Cini. In addition to the ants, crucial for ecosystem functioning, we know well the role of bees, important for pollination, while we are less aware of that of wasps, which, being predators, keep the populations of harmful insects under control. Understanding what the crucial elements at the base of the great ecological success of these insect societies are — the researcher concludes — can help us to protect them.”
