ArticlePhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2025
Specialism and generalism in social animals in variable environments.
Article in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Group size and labour demands determine division of labour as a consequence of demographic stochasticity.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Division of labour as key driver of social evolution.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- Specialism and generalism in social animals in variable environments.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Helping niches may trigger the development of task specialization and division of labour.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- The evolution of division of labour: preconditions and evolutionary feedback.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
An important advantage to sociality is division of labour, which is often associated with specialization of group members, such as the polymorphic subcastes of ant workers. Given this advantage, it is puzzling that many social groups do not show clear specialization. Among ants, workers of closely related species have one, two or even three polymorphisms. The degree of specialism of asocial animals depends on environmental variability because specialists will perform poorly in some conditions. Here, we use a numeric model to consider whether the magnitude and type of environmental variability can help to explain the diversity of specialism in cooperative groups. By finding the optimal distribution of group members along a single dimension of specialization for two tasks, we predict when groups should be composed of specialists, generalists, both of these (trimodal) or moderate specialists. Generalism is predicted more when environments are unstable and when task importance-rather than demand-varies but depends on the likelihood that the group can complete all tasks in the range of experienced conditions. The benefit of sociality is strongest in invariable environments and there is selection for redundancy in the workforce, which may explain the widely observed inactivity in social insects.This article is part of the theme issue 'Division of labour as key driver of social evolution'.
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