User:Acather96/Drafts/DDP

The density-dependent prophylaxis hypothesis (DDP) predicts that with the shift to group living, an increasing investment in personal immune responses as well as the evolution of social immune systems would have been selected for; the higher personal effort prophylatically engendering the whole group to benefit from herd immunity as well as a lower per capita risk of infection. Empirical evidence for the DDP hypothesis has been recovered from both intraspecific and interspecific studies: desert locusts (Schistocerca gregaria) in the solitary phase survive infections worse and have reduced antimicrobial activity compared to those in the gregarious phase, whilst it has been shown by comparisons within bees, thrips and wasps that in each group a correlation between increasing sociality and personal immunity (antimicrobial cuticle secretion efficiency) exists. CHECK

Social immunity and the evolution of group living in insects Joël Meunier Published 13 April 2015.DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2014.0102