Natural History and Evolution of Paper-Wasps [Hardcover]

The diversity of social behavior among birds and primates is surpassed only by members of the Hymenopteran insects, including bees, ants, and the genus Polistes, or paper-wasps. This volume combines incisive reviews and new, unpublished data in studies of paper-wasps, a large and varied group whose life patterns are often studied by biologists interested in social evolution. While this research is significant to the natural history of paper-wasps, it also applies to topics of general interest such as the evolution of cooperation, social parasitism, kin recognition, and the division of labor.

1.Polistes: analysis of a society
2. Phylogeny and biogeography ofPolistes
3. Learning, individual programs, and higher-level rules in construction of behaviour ofPolistes
4. Ecological factors influencing the colony cycle ofPolistes
5. Social parasitism and its evolution inPolistes
6. Lek-like courtship in paper-wasps; 'a prolonged, delicate, and troublesome affair'
7. Homing in paper wasps
8. The evolution of exocrine gland function in wasps
9. Kin recognition in social wasps
10. The role of cuticular hydrocarbons in social insects: is it the same in paper wasps?
11. Selective altruism towards closer over more distant relatives in colonies of the primitively eusocial wasp,Polistes
12. Behavioural screening and the evolution of polygyny in paper wasps
13. The origin and maintenance of eusociality: the advantage of extended parental care
14.Polistesin perspective: comparative social biology and evolution inBelanogasterand Stenogastrinae
15. The evolution of eusociality, including a review of the social status ofRopalidia marignata
16. Wasps make nests: nests make conditions
17. Wasp societies as microcosms for the study of development and evolution
18. Some epistemological reflections onPolistesas a model organisms
References