Self-medication in insects: when altered behaviors of infected insects are a defense instead of a parasite manipulation

Abstract

Studies have demonstrated that medication behaviors by insects are much more common than previously thought. Bees, ants, flies, and butterflies can use a wide range of toxic and nutritional compounds to medicate themselves or their genetic kin. Medication occurs either in response to active infection (therapy) or high infection risk (prophylaxis), and can be used to increase resistance or tolerance to infection. While much progress has been made over the last few years, there are also key areas that require in-depth investigation. These include quantifying the costs of medication, especially at the colony level of social insects, and formulating theoretical models that can predict the role of infection risk in driving micro-evolutionary and macro-evolutionary patterns of animal medication behaviors.