Suzanne Wellington Tubby Batra: A Life Dedicated to Pollen Bees

Abstract

Insect sociobiology is the research field that focusses on how and why some lineages of insects abandoned their solitary life styles to live in social groups. The simplest insect social groups are herds, groups of individuals that live together for a portion of their lives, sometimes cooperating with each other, and even helping to rear each other’s offspring. Figuring out the advantages and disadvantages of cooperation and group living is one of the primary research foci in insect sociobiology. Almost any student of animal behaviour or entomology has heard about eusocial insects, especially the best known eusocial insects, namely honeybees, ants, and termites that live in large colonies composed of one or a few queens and hundreds, thousands or even millions of workers. In eusocial societies, most eggs are laid by queens but the work of raising the brood that develop from those eggs, is done by workers. What many scientists and other enthusiasts of social insects do not realize, is that the original meaning of the term eusocial was different and that it was coined by a pioneering entomologist, Dr. Suzanne Batra, almost 60 years ago. Batra’s contributions to sociobiology were often overlooked, as happened to many women scientists of the time, but in recent years, her contributions to sociobiology have achieved increased and long overdue recognition.