The Insect Societies

Edward O. Wilson

    Acknowledgment

    Introduction: The Importance of Social Insects

    2. The Degrees of Social Behavior

    3. The Social Wasps

    4. The Ants

    5. The Social Bees

    6. The Termites

    7. The Presocial Insects

    8. Caste: Ants

    9. Caste: Social Bees and Wasps

    10. Caste: Termites

    11. The Elements of Behavior

    12. Communication: Alarm and Assembly

    13. Communication: Recruitment

    14. Communication: Recognition, Food Exchange, and Grooming

    15. Group Effects and the Control of Nestmates

    16. Social Homeostasis and the Superorganism

    17. The Genetic Theory of Social Behavior

    18. Compromise and Optimization in Social Evolution

    19. Symbioses among Social Insects

    20. Symbioses with Other Arthropods

    21. The Population Dynamics of Colonies

    22. The Prospect for a Unified Sociobiology

    Glossary

    Bibliography

    Index

  • Cover: The Insect Societies
  • A photo of the author

Author photo: by Jon Chase/Harvard 1996

Edward O. Wilson is Pellegrino University Professor at Harvard University. In addition to two Pulitzer Prizes (one of which he shares with Bert Hölldobler), Wilson has won many scientific awards, including the National Medal of Science and the Crafoord Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.