Eusocial Reproduction Selects for Longevity

Animals such as bees, ants, wasps, termites, and naked mole-rats live in colonies in which a single queen is the only female reproductive, an arrangement known as eusociality. Eusocial animals are known for their remarkably long lifespans. It has been argued that longevity becomes selected when queens are shielded from "external mortality". While such protection may contribute, we find a deeper reason: the eusocial reproduction strategy itself inherently creates selection for long lifespans. Lifespans typically reflect two processes: the baseline risk of death and the rate at which this risk increases with age. Each is a parameter in the Gompertz mortality equation. We show that the mathematical properties of eusocial reproduction lead to slowly-growing, older populations where selection acts more strongly on the rate at which risk increases than on the baseline risk. In addition, we show that channeling reproduction through a single female also selects for longevity, which we term the "queen effect". Thus, the dynamics of eusocial reproduction select for longer lifespan. More broadly, these results show that reproductive structure and population growth dynamics can fundamentally shape selection on lifespan, with implications outside eusocial systems as well.