This book represents the culmination of the author’s lifetime work on a single fascinating group of insects, the hover wasps, Stenogastrinae. The author explores the biology of these little-known wasps at the threshold of sociality, presenting an ambitious survey of ideas about their evolution and an assessment of the current standing of controversial concepts. Following taxonomic and morphological descriptions, the behaviour, colonial dynamics, social communication and especially the remarkably diverse nests of wasps are discussed. Compared to the better-known species of paper wasps, hornets and yellow jackets, the hover wasps show various peculiarities, such as characteristics of immature brood rearing, nest defence and mating systems. The nest architecture probably presents the most variable solutions in social wasps and is characterized by an astonishing level of camouflage, making these insects an interesting example of special adaptation to forest environments.

"Covers all 416 species of flower flies that occur north of Tennessee and east of the Dakotas, including the high Arctic and Greenland"--Page [4] of cover.

Whether you're an amateur insect enthusiast, a student or an entomologist, this updated and revised third edition of A Field Guide to Insects in Australia will help you to identify insects from all the major insect groups. With more photographs and up-to-date information, it will enable you to differentiate between a dragonfly and a damselfly or a cricket and a grasshopper. You'll find cockroaches, termites, praying mantids, beetles, cicadas, moths, butterflies, ants and bees. More than 300 colour photographs show the insects in their natural habitat and the line drawings clearly illustrate subtle differences where identification is tricky.

Extinct worlds live again in palaeoart: artworks of fossil animals, plants and environments carefully reconstructed from palaeontological and geological data. Such artworks are widespread in popular culture, appearing in documentaries, museums, books and magazines, and inspiring depictions of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals in cinema. This book outlines how fossil animals and environments can be reconstructed from their fossils, explaining how palaeoartists overcome gaps in fossil data and predict 'soft-tissue' anatomies no longer present around fossil bones. It goes on to show how science and art can meet to produce compelling, interesting takes on ancient worlds, and it explores the goals and limitations of this popular but rarely discussed art genre. Multiple chapters with dozens of illustrations of fossil animal reconstruction, with specific guidance on fossil amphibians, mammals and their fossil relatives, and a myriad of fossil reptiles (including dinosaurs). Explores how best to present diverse fossil animal forms in art - how best to convey size, proportion and motion in landscapes without familiar reference points. Explains essential techniques for the aspiring palaeoartists, from understanding geological time and evolutionary relationships to rebuilding skeletons and muscles. Suggests where and how to gather reliable sources of data for palaeoartworks. Includes a history of palaeoart, outlining the full evolution of the medium from ancient times to the modern day. Examines stylistic variation in palaeoart. Showcases diverse artworks from world-leading contemporary palaeoartists. Palaeoartistry is a popular but rarely discussed art genre. This new book outlines how fossil animals and environments can be reconstructed from their fossils. Of great interest to everyone interested in palaeoartistry, dinosaurs, natural history and fossils. Superbly illustrated with 195 colour images. Dr Mark P Witton is an author, palaeontological artist and researcher whose palaeoartworks have featured in numerous research papers, television shows, museums and art galleries.

Social behavior occurs in some of the smallest animals as well as some the largest, and the transition from solitary life to sociality is an unsolved evolutionary mystery. In The Evolution of Social Wasps, James H. Hunt examines social behavior in a single lineage of insects, wasps of the family Vespidae. He presents empirical knowledge of social wasps from two approaches, one that focuses on phylogeny and life history and one that focuses on individual ontogeny, colony development, and population dynamics. He also provides an extensive summary of the existing literature while demonstrating how it can be clouded by theory. Hunt's fresh approach to the conflicting literature on sociality highlights how oft repeated models can become fixed in the thinking of the scientific community. Instead, Hunt presents a mechanistic scenario for the evolution of sociality in wasps that changes our perspective on kin selection, the paradigm that has dominated thinking about social evolution since the 1970s. This innovative new model integrates life history, nutrition, fitness and ecology in which social insect biologists will find a rich storehouse of ideas and information, and behavioral ecologists will find a bracing challenge to long accepted models. Engagingly written, bold, and provocative, The Evolution of Social Wasps marks a milestone in our understanding of one of lifes major evolutionary transitions - the origin of social behavior.