Cucos, formigas, abelhas e a evolu？？o dos instintos

in this paper, i examine chapter vii of "the origin of species" (instinct), in which charles darwin applies evolutionary theory by natural selection to the instinct domain and lays the foundations of a biological analysis of behavior. darwin intended to show the possibility of gradual evolution in the case of complex behaviors such as brood parasitism in cuckoos, slave-making habits in ants and geometrical cell building in honey bees. darwin attributed functional value to behavioral characters, used the comparision of related species' behavior as a way to infer evolutionary stages, gave cost-and-benefit and optimization processes a role as selection criteria, took into account aspects of behavioral competition and manipulation and gave a group selection approach to the question of sterile castes of eusocial insects. more than results and solutions, darwin offered, in his chapter about instinct, a paradigm for the analysis of species typical behaviors, a true starting point for modern approaches such as ethology and behavioral ecology.