Bees are flying insects of the order Hymenoptera closely related to wasps and ants. The ancestors of bees are assumed to be predatory wasps, which switched to pollen consumption. Further, bees co-evolved with flowering plants and divided into several species according to climatic conditions. Widely known bees are western bees Apis mellifera, and eastern bees Apis cerana. This book sheds light on features of evolution, phylogenesis, speciation, adaptation to environment, and taxonomy of bees. It will be of particular relevance to evolutionists, geneticists, taxonomists, ecologists, population geneticist, and breeders.

Volume 161 of Zoologica reviews and analyses the evolution and phylogeny of bees. It is subdivided into two parts Part One: A Preamble to the Evolution and Phylogeny of Bees provides a complete and critical review of all previous attempts to reconstruct the phylogenetic tree of bees (Anthophila / Apiformes) based on morphological, bionomic and molecular approaches and pre- sented in chronological sequence up to and including recent publications. At the same time, the introductory part examines trends in the classification of bees and compares available hypotheses of bee evolution. Part One closes with a family-wise delineation of the fossil history of bees. Part Two: A Phylogenetic Study of Bees in Light of Morphological Evidence adds an experimental study to complement the bibliographical analysis provided in Part One. The phylogenetic relationships of the larger taxonomic units of bees are tested anew using an extensive dataset of selected morphological features. The study uses all common and current computer-aided techniques of cladistic analysis (parsimony, successive/implied weight, Bayesian and neighbor-joining), which are applied to representatives of all seven families, 22 subfamilies and 48 of 58 tribes of bees. The conclusions drawn from this are evaluated for the major groups (i.e., short-tongued and long-tongued bees), and separately for the families, subfamilies and tribes in each case. In a world currently dominated by molecular genetic approaches to phylogeny, this study clearly demonstrates that it is not anachronistic to engage in morphological efforts, because progress can be significantly advanced and the pool of available scientific arguments enriched. The diversity of the object of investigation justifies a variety of methods. This monograph is a much needed reference work of high practical value for all students of bee evolution, phylogeny and morphology. Further, it is ideally suited as good introductory reading material for university level students.

Honeybees are as small as flies or as large as hornets, nesting in nar row cavities of trees and rocks or in the open on large limbs of trees 30 m above ground. They occur in tropical zones and in the forests of the Ural mountains, they survive seven months of winter and even longer periods of drought and heat. Historically, they lived through a extended time of stagnation in the tropics from the mid-Tertiary, but then experienced an explosive evolution during the Pleistocene, re sulting in the conquest of huge new territories and the origin of two dozen subspecies in Apis mellifera. This vast geographic and ecologic diversification of the genus Apis was accompanied by a rich morphological variation, less on the level of species than at the lowest rank, the subspecies level. Variation being exclusively of a quantitative kind at this first step of speciation, tradi tional descriptive methods of systematics proved to be unsatisfactory, and honeybee taxonomy finally ended up in a confusing multitude of inadequately described units. Effective methods of morphometric-sta tistical analysis of honeybee popUlations, centered on limited areas, have been developed during the last decades. Only the numerical characterization of the populations, together with the description of behavior, shows the true geographic variability and will end current generalizations and convenient stereotypes.

A comprehensive, multi-author treatise on the social insects of the world, with some auxiliary attention to such adjacent topics as subsocial insects and social arachnids. The work is to serve as a very convenient, yet authoritative reference work on the biology and systematics of social insects of the world. This is a project of the International Union for the Study of Social Insects (IUSSI), the worldwide organizing body for the scientific study of social insects.

Darwin famously described special difficulties in explaining social evolution in insects. More than a century later, the evolution of sociality - defined broadly as cooperative group living - remains one of the most intriguing problems in biology. Providing a unique perspective on the study of social evolution, this volume synthesizes the features of animal social life across the principle taxonomic groups in which sociality has evolved. The chapters explore sociality in a range of species, from ants to primates, highlighting key natural and life history data and providing a comparative view across animal societies. In establishing a single framework for a common, trait-based approach towards social synthesis, this volume will enable graduate students and investigators new to the field to systematically compare taxonomic groups and reinvigorate comparative approaches to studying animal social evolution.