EDWARD WILSON has given us a characteristically fascinating account of the evolution of social insects (see “Kinship doesn’t matter – how insects are altruistic” and BioScience, vol 58, p 17). But his “group selection” terminology is misleading, and his distinction between “kin selection” and “individual direct selection” is empty.
What matters is gene selection. All we need ask of a purportedly adaptive trait is, “What makes a gene for that trait increase in frequency?” Wilson wrongly implies that explanations should resort to kin selection only when “direct” selection fails. Here he falls for the first of my “
