Raghavendra Gadagkar

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Raghavendra Gadagkar

Raghavendra Gadagkar (born June 28, 1953 in Kanpur ) is an Indian entomologist and behavioral scientist , known for contributions to the sociobiology of wasps .

Life

Gadagkar, who went to school as the son of a soldier only at the age of nine, studied zoology at the University of Bangalore with a bachelor's and master's degree and received a doctorate in molecular biology. Gadagkar is a professor at the Center for Ecological Studies at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore . There he is also founding director of the Center for Contemporary Studies , which aims to promote an interdisciplinary encounter between the natural sciences and the humanities.

plant

Ropalidia marginata

He studied social insects , especially the Ropalidia marginata , a field wasp . They build paper nests in small groups, with a box division into workers, soldiers, silent reserve ( sitter ) and queen (which, however, hardly differ externally and thus form a preliminary stage to more well-known insect states). The nest members are mostly female, the males do not work, have a relatively short life that they spend as nomads, and only serve the purpose of reproduction, avoiding inbreeding. He studied in detail the complex social behavior of wasps, such as avoiding conflicts in their own nest, fighting with wasps from another nest, chasing away queens when their fertility declines, and moving out of nest members to establish their own colonies (in principle, this wasp species each female to become queen) or to join others. He was able to confirm quantitatively the theory of altruism in animals of William D. Hamilton (1964), for example Hamilton's prediction that around five percent of the colony members would leave the colony. The tendency to leave the colony increases when sufficient food sources and favorable environmental conditions are available. But he also found deviations from Hamilton's theory (which was again the subject of debate after the criticism by EO Wilson in 2010). So young immigrants from other colonies cannot be distinguished from the colony inhabitants and even rise to queens in the colony. If two colonies are united, one queen will be killed by the workers of the other colony, but then the two peoples will unite. The choice of a new queen is also unclear (she will be chosen from the group of sitters if the old queen is removed). Gadagkar also observed cases where colonists apparently spontaneously banded together, chose a new queen, and emigrated, communication possibly being through chemical signals in saliva. He also attests that the wasp colonies are able to learn, for example with regard to collecting food.

He summarized his decades of research in the monograph The Social biology of Ropalidia marginata . He previously published a more popular science book on survival strategies.

Memberships and honors

He has been a fellow and permanent member of the Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin since 2002 , is a fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences (and its secretary from 1995 to 2000) and has been a member of the Leopoldina since 2012 . Gadagkar is a fellow and was chairman of the Indian National Science Academy from 2014 to 2016 and received the Federal Cross of Merit in 2015 . He is an external member of the National Academy of Sciences and, since 2017, of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . He received the biology award of the Third World Academy of Sciences , of which he is a member. He is an honorary doctor of the University of Burdwan (West Bengal).

Fonts

  • Survival Strategies - Cooperation and Conflict in Animal Societies, Harvard UP 1997
  • The Social Biology of Ropalidia marginata: Towards understanding the evolution of eusociality, Harvard UP 2001

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Gadagkar, Raghavendra
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Indian entomologist
DATE OF BIRTH June 28, 1953
PLACE OF BIRTH Kanpur