Queen Number and Sociality in Insects
Published on 23. September 1993
Book
Hardback
452 pages
978-0-19-854057-1 (ISBN)
Description
Social insects - especially bees, wasps, ants, and termits - are diverse, abundant, ecologically important, and incredibly successful: in some habitats they may constitute more than forty per cent of the total animal biomass. This book provides an up-to-date account of this group, reflecting the widespread and increasing interest in the ecological and evolutionary causes underlying the evolution of complex animal societies.
The book explains how this high success rate is due to the highly efficient division of labour within social insects' societies, central to which is the number of queens cohabiting within a nest. Queen number affects critical components of social organization such as genetic relatedness, reproductive strategies, sex ratio, and the nature of conflicts among nestmates.
Multiple queen colonies provide one of the most fascinating systems from which to study conflict and cooperation in animal societies, ensuring the book's value for all studying social behaviour.
The book explains how this high success rate is due to the highly efficient division of labour within social insects' societies, central to which is the number of queens cohabiting within a nest. Queen number affects critical components of social organization such as genetic relatedness, reproductive strategies, sex ratio, and the nature of conflicts among nestmates.
Multiple queen colonies provide one of the most fascinating systems from which to study conflict and cooperation in animal societies, ensuring the book's value for all studying social behaviour.
Reviews / Votes
'Author and subject indexes and a glossary facilitate the use of this book as a reference. Of primary interest to graduate students and researchers interested in evolution, ecology, and the social aspects of behavior.'R.E. Lee Jr., Miami University (OH), Choice, Sep'94 - Vol. 32, No. 1
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
halftones, line figures, tables
Dimensions
Height: 241 mm
Width: 162 mm
Thickness: 30 mm
Weight
895 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-854057-1 (9780198540571)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Content
List of contributors ; 1. Opportunities and pitfalls in co-operative reproduction ; 2. Reproductive structure and reproductive roles in colonies of eusocial insects ; 3. Queen - queen conflicts in polygynous societies: mutual tolerance and reproductive skew ; 4. Sex ratio variation in polygynous ants ; 5. The effects of polygny and colony life history on optimal sex investment ; 6. Genetic relatedness and its components in polygynous colonies of social insects ; 7. The maintenance of high genetic relatedness in multi-queen colonies of social wasps ; 8. The evolutiuon of polygyny in primitively eusocial polistine wasps with special rerference to the genus Ropalidia ; 9. Serial polygyny in the primitively eusocial wasp Ropalidia marginata: implications for the evolution of sociality ; 10. Multiple - foundress associations in sweat bees ; 11. Monogyny and polygyny in ponerine ants with or without queens ; 12. Ecological determinants of queen number in ants ; 13. Distribution and ecology of queen number in ants of the genus Myrmica ; 14. Monogyny and polygyny in Formica ants: the result of alternative dispersal tactics ; 15. Queen - queen interactions in polygynous ants ; 16. Kin discrimination and division of labour among matrilines in the polygynous carpenter ant, Camponotus planatus ; 17. Selective pressures on pleometrosis and secondary polygyny: a comparison of termites and ants ; Glossary ; Author index ; Subject index