Re: Social apoptosis

The authors state:

Such altruistic suicide of immature individuals is a novel form of transgenerational
social immunity in honey bees. Irrespective of the actual pathogen, the observed social apoptosis is most
likely a fundamental defence mechanism of social insect colonies to combat diseases.

Comment:

The idea of altruistic suicide has been tossed about for a decade or more. As Jasna Kralj pointed out to me, you cannot really call such behaviors suicide, because we don't have any way of knowing whether the death is intentional or consequential. 

As for young larvae dying to protect the hive, that to me is a huge leap from the evidence. While it may have a long term benefit, it would be difficult to prove that it is the result of natural selection. 

Do we think that the high levels of infant mortality in earlier centuries actually created healthier populations? We regard ourselves as healthier today because we have drastically reduced infant mortality and life expectancy has also risen.

PLB

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