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.

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.

The time is ripe to investigate similarities and differences in the course of social evolution in different animals. This book brings together renowned researchers working on sociality in different animals to deal with the key questions of sociobiology. For the first time, they compile the evidence for the importance of ecological factors in the evolution of social life, ranging from invertebrate to vertebrate social systems, and evaluate its importance versus that of relatedness.

First published in 1943, Vitamins and Hormones is the longest-running serial published by Academic Press. The Editorial Board now reflects expertise in the field of hormone action, vitamin action, X-ray crystal structure, physiology, and enzyme mechanisms. Under the capable and qualified editorial leadership of Dr. Gerald Litwack, Vitamins and Hormones continues to publish cutting-edge reviews of interest to endocrinologists, biochemists, nutritionists, pharmacologists, cell biologists, and molecular biologists. Others interested in the structure and function of biologically active molecules like hormones and vitamins will, as always, turn to this series for comprehensive reviews by leading contributors to this and related disciplines. This volume focuses on insulin and IGFs. - Longest running series published by Academic Press - Contributions by leading international authorities

In this edited collection, 17 internationally known authorities bring together the results of recent research on the natural history, ecology, behavior, morphology, and genetics of wasps as they pertain to the evolution of social behavior. The first part of the book opens with a review of the classification of the family Vespidae along with a revision of the subfamily Polistinae. Seven subsequent chapters deal with the natural history and social biology of each of the major taxa of social and presocial vespids. The second part of the book offers chapters on reproductive competition; worker polyethism; evolution of nest architecture, of queen number and queen control, and of exocrine glands; population genetics; the nutritional bsis of social evolution; and the nest as the locus of social life. The final chapter is a comparative discussion of social behavior in the Sphecidae, the only family of wasps besides the Vespidae in which well-developed social behavior is known. Providing a wealth of information about the biology of wasps, this comprehensive, up-to-date volume will be an essential reference for entomologists, evolutionary biologists, behavioral ecologists, ethologists, and zoologists. Contributors: James M. Carpenter. David P. Cowan. Holly A Downing. Raghavendra Gadagkar. Albert Greene. James H. Hunt. Robert L. Jeanne. Makoto Matsuura. Robert W. Matthews. Hudson K. Reeve. PeterFrank Roseler. Kenneth G. Ross. J. Philip Spradbery. Christopher K. Starr. Stefano Turillazzi. John W. Wenzel. Mary Jane West-Eberhard.