if people like this, there is an interesting podcast on lyfe and life. [0] Apparently, the people who do research to artificial life, where they create things in silico and try to make life evolve from them, constantly run into a similar problem. By the time one or two hierarchies of organization have formed, progress halts as it succumbs to parasitic behaviour. Afaik it is still a poorly understood phenomenon, and even the bee society doesn't look immune.
I wonder how we ever got here with all these parasites.