Social Insects

This comprehensive multi-author volume introduces modern understanding of the fascinating world of insect sociality. These highly complex non-human societies have evolved impressive solutions for many problems of social life. Reproductive strategies and important regulatory mechanisms are discussed, pointing out the role of hormones and pheromones in caste development and caste functions. The physiological basis and the sociobiological aspects of reproductive differentiation, the resulting specializations in social insect evolution, thereby raising caste formation, and sophisticated regulations of intracolonial homeostasis are treated.