Ants of India  

Evolutionary biology is my prime area of interest with focus on speciation, its patterns. Ants, since their origin in Cretaceous period about 135-140 mya, have undergone enormous diversification. K/T event towards the end of Mesozoic may have terminated their fossil forms but primitive ponerines soldiered on. In Paleocene and early Eocene (Paleogene period) diversification of Angiosperms led to the expansion of ants. Phenotype plasticity coupled with fitness of genotype and instinct to survive led to the origin of eusociality in ants. Obviously these traits empowered them the sheer ecological dominance as compared to other animal groups. Eusociality has many different forms and consequences. One of them is social parasitism. Since Darwin (1859) in his monumental treatise “Origin of species by means of natural selection” proposed first hypothesis on the origin of slavery in ants, the evolution of dulosis and other forms of social parasitism has been the subject of interest. These social parasites are good candidates for study of speciation.The mode of speciation (allopatric, sympatric, parapatric, peripatric) has been a long debatable issue for evolutionary biologists, since Mayr championed the idea of allopatric mode. Other modes like sympatric speciation came into reckoning later on. The debate goes on------------------------?

{Research Project to carry out evolutionary biology studies: Social Parasitism in Himalayan Ants and their Speciation Patterns funded by Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi}