Fitness-determining interactions with microbes — in particular fungi — have often been considered a by-product of social evolution in insects. Here, we take the view that both beneficial and harmful microbial consortia are major drivers of social behaviours in many insect systems — ranging from aggregation to eusociality. We propose evolutionary feedbacks between the insect sociality and microbial communities that strengthen mutualistic interactions with beneficial (dietary or defensive) microbes and simultaneously increase the capacity to defend against pathogens (i.e. social immunity). We identified variation in habitat stability — as determined by breeding site predictability and ephemerality — as a main ecological factor that constrains these feedbacks. To test this hypothesis we suggest following the evolution of insect social traits upon experimental manipulation of habitat stability and microbial consortia.

决定健康度的与微生物（尤其是真菌）的相互作用通常被认为是昆虫社会进化的副产品。在这里，我们认为有益的和有害的微生物联盟都是许多昆虫系统中社会行为的主要驱动力，从聚集到善解人意。我们提出昆虫社会与微生物群落之间的进化反馈，以加强与有益（饮食或防御）微生物的相互影响，同时增加抵御病原体（即社会免疫力）的能力。我们确定了栖息地稳定性的变化-由繁殖地点的可预测性和短暂性决定-是限制这些反馈的主要生态因素。