The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):

memetic algorithm

    A genetic algorithm or evolutionary algorithm
   which includes a non-genetic local search to improve
   genotypes.  The term comes from the Richard Dawkin's term
   "meme".

   One big difference between memes and genes is that memes are
   processed and possibly improved by the people that hold them -
   something that cannot happen to genes.  It is this advantage
   that the memetic algorithm has over simple genetic or
   evolutionary algorithms.

   These algorithms are useful in solving complex problems, such
   as the "Travelling Salesman Problem," which involves finding
   the shortest path through a large number of nodes, or in
   creating artificial life to test evolutionary theories.

   Memetic algorithms are one kind of metaheuristic.

   UNLP memetic algorithms home page
   (http://ing.unlp.edu.ar/cetad/mos/memetic_home.html).

   (07 July 1997)