Social environment: Trait, context and agent for selection in a meta‐population

Abstract

In Focus: Formica, V., Donald, H., Marti, H., Irgebay, Z., Brodie III, E. Social network position experiences more variable selection than weaponry in wild subpopulations of forked fungus beetles. Journal of Animal Ecology, 90, 168-182, https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13322. That social network traits can exhibit consistent-individual differences among individuals and confer a fitness benefit or cost is increasingly well-established. However, how selection-natural or sexual-affects those social traits and at what scale remains an open question. In this Special Feature, Formica and colleagues employ a meta-population of forked fungus beetles to test and contrast whether sexual selection on social network traits contrasted to morphological traits occurs at the local (soft) or global (hard) scales. The authors demonstrate that morphological traits are largely under hard directional positive selection, whereas social traits are under soft and variable selection. The findings are compelling and raise interesting discussion of multi-level selection and the evolution of social traits in a meta-population.