Includes bibliographical references and index.

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.

Originally published in 1928, this volume, by a world authority on the subject, sums up our knowledge of the social insects. It inquires what are the social insects and what it is that makes us call them ‘social’. Terebrantia, aculeata, wasps, bees, ants, and termites are discussed in a succession of chapters, showing how they have evolved, to how great an extent they have developed, and what are the peculiarities of their evolution. Polymorphism, the Social Medium, Guests and Parasites of the Social Insects, are other subjects discussed in this fascinating book.

In this book internationally known experts provide a comprehensive view of current knowledge of social insect biology including much previously unpublished information. Particular emphasis is given to the relationships between social insects and humans; sections are devoted to economically important social insects, pollination, foraging, and the role of insects in ecosystems and agroecosystems. The authors also discuss communication, behavior and caste within insect colonies. A special section focuses on the neurobiology of social insects. A series of papers considers the presocial insects, which live in family groups but without caste differences. Also well represented are the fields of sociobiology and the origins and evolution of social behavior. The book will be valuable to agricultural scientists as well as to entomologists, sociobiologists, ecologists, ethologists, and natural historians. Endocrinologists and neurobiologists will also find important new material.

Social Insects, Volume I is a part of a four-volume discourse and collection of research on insect sociobiology. This volume covers the "modern theory with certain concepts of insect sociality, particularly through genetic, behavioral, and evolutionary pathways. This book consists of eight chapters, which mostly deal with the sociality of insects and other aspects. The first chapter provides an introduction to the subject of insect sociality. Topics in this chapter include definition of sociality, types of social insects, and insect sociobiology. The next chapter focuses on the origin and evolution of insect sociality and discusses the theories of origin of sociality. The following chapters discuss the aspects of social insects in terms of antiquity and territoriality. Caste differentiation and division of labor is also emphasized, as well as the genetics of sociality. The last two chapters deal with the larvae of the social hymenoptera and the social and evolutionary significance of social insect symbionts. This volume is a good reference for students and teachers in the study of entomology, zoology, and biology.