* Acknowledgment *1. 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
Edward O. Wilson was Pellegrino University Professor, Emeritus, 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.
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.
*Natural History*
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.
*Library Journal*
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.
*Science*
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.
*New York Times Book Review*
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.
*Nature*
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.
*Scientific American*
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