If only because of the rarity of the event and the stature of the author…The Insect Societies must be considered a work of major importance. It is certain to influence the focus of research as well as the content of public information on the social insects for years to come…For anyone, layman or specialists, interested in a single, concise, lucid, and authoritative account of the most significant facts and theories about insect societies, The Insect Societies is the best available and will be for many years.

Because ants, wasps, bees, and termites are of importance to man, because of their ecological domination of the land, and because their activities remind man of his own, this encyclopedic work will attract the general reader, students, and biologists as well as entomologists…This comprehensive work must be recognized as an outstanding contribution to biological literature.

The Insect Societies gives an extraordinarily complete and up-to-date account of the natural history of social insects with their great proliferation of genera, species, and behavioral types…In these fields modern genetics, selection theory, and biomathematics are being developed to explain the evolution of insect societies and their diversity both in size and in longevity. This is one of the growing points in the study of social insects and an undertaking to which Wilson is making important contributions.

In comprehensiveness of scope and modernity of outlook The Insect Societies can truly be said to be unique. For many years to come it will surely constitute a benchmark for all those, professional and amateur alike, for whom the social insects offer one of the most compelling and fascinating pageants in all the world of nature. The book is likely to become a collector's item.

The book is well illustrated, and written in a clear direct style, with such specialist technical terms as Wilson feels obliged to uses explained in a glossary; evidently he is anxious to reach a wider audience than that provided by professional entomologists--as indeed the book deserves to do…This handsome book will undoubtedly be widely read and influential.

No book on biology in the past 20 years has been as satisfying as this treatise on ants, bees, wasps and termites…It is written with clarity and verve, but what distinguishes it particularly is its catholic mastery of all of biology, from paleontology to formal genetics, from ethology to biochemistry. Nothing less can be an adequate basis for the study of our social colleagues on this earth, and nothing less has its courageous and energetic author settled for. Biology is a whole science, and here it is wholly seen…It is so honest and yet so rich that it attracts and holds by the scent of understanding.