This reminds me of the mechanisms the penguins used in the book "The Selfish Gene" by Charles Dawkins to make sure their genes get passed on. It shows that penguins relatives if they did not have kids benefited by raising and protecting their nieces and nephews because they still contained some of the same genes.
RE: About the amazing mechanism how infested tomato plants help uninfested ones to defend against 'common cutworms'.