Differences between vertebrate and invertebrate microbiota are pretty distinct. 



> The patterns that emerge from the combined dataset are very different from what we anticipated. Bacterial communities that occupy the majority of vertebrate guts are markedly different from non-animal (free-living) bacterial communities. 



> Another striking pattern to emerge from this analysis is the distinction between vertebrate and invertebrate- associated communities. Almost all of the invertebrate gut communities cluster with the free-living communities, with the exception of termites and most of the samples from beetle larvae.



> One feature that differentiates the vertebrate gut from other habitats is the adaptive immune system. Margaret McFall-Ngai has postulated that the evolution of the adaptive immune system in vertebrates allows for a level of complexity in their associated microbiota that invertebrates cannot manage with an innate immune system alone.



> The dichotomy between vertebrate gut and free-living communities observed at the whole- community level was indeed evident within the constituent phyla.



Ley, Ruth E., et al. "Worlds within worlds: evolution of the vertebrate gut microbiota." Nature Reviews Microbiology 6.10 (2008): 776-788.



Also, despite such wonderful books as Maeterlink’s "Life of the Bee", Phillips' "Honey Bees and Fairy Dust", and Seeley’s "Honeybee Democracy", I think it’s a very big mistake to equate eusocial insects with any human entities whether individuals, families or cities. Insect colonies are marvelous in their complexity, but the overuse of metaphor ultimately muddies it up and we see less, not more.



PLB



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