Disease in the fortress: A natural history of parasites controlling insect societies

The insect societies are one of the major transitions in the evolution of life on earth. Less appreciated is the fact that this transition was also a major evolutionary event for the parasites that either hitched along as life went from solitary to highly social, or subsequently colonized these host islands with their unusual features. In this talk I will use key examples to show the strangeness and beauty of diseases in ant societies.