A
superorganism is an
organism consisting of many organisms. The term is used most often to describe a
social unit of
eusocial animals, where
division of labour is highly specialised and where individuals are not able to survive by themselves for extended periods.
Ants are the best-known example of such a superorganism, while the
naked mole-rat is a famous example of the
eusocial mammal. The technical definition of a superorganism is "a collection of agents which can act in concert to produce phenomena governed by the collective," phenomena being any activity "the hive wants" such as ants collecting food or bees choosing a new nest site. Superorganisms tend to exhibit the behaviours of
homeostasis,
power law scaling, persistent disequilibrium and emergent behaviours.