This book compliments its sister volume on Social Behaviour by the same Author/Editors and it would not be unreasonable to consider both books as two volume of one publication given the relatedness of their subject matter. Mating systems in all animals are fascinating because it is here we often see the most diverse effects of evolution. Arachnids in particular, being entirely predatory have evolved a whole suite of actions and responses which allow the two sexes to come together for this all important mixing of the genes. The difficulty of course is making sure that each potential mate, particularly if female, distinguishes between a mate and dinner, or at least separating the two long enough to allow mating to occur.
The subject matter is huge and it would be foolish to expect anything but a small glimpse in a single book. For this reason I think the editors were being a bit over ambitious attempting insects and arachnids when the arachnids easily need a book entirely for themselves. Of the 21 chapters 5 are general to varying degrees and two of these include arachnids; of the remaining 16, 2 are concerned with arachnids, one jumping spiders and one pseudoscorpions. Though this may be a representative of species numbers and diversity, it emphasises my point that this book has attempted too large a job. Of the remaining 14 chapters 3 are on the Orthoptera, 2 of Lepidoptera, 2 on Hymenoptera (not fortunately aculeates) 2 on Coleoptera, 1 on Hemiptera, 1 on Diptera, 1 on Zoraptera, 1 on Odonata and 1 on Neuropterids.
It is particularly pleasant to see, as in the sister volume, chapters on insect orders/groups generally less well covered in the literature, i.e. Psuedoscorpions and Zoraptera in particular. I think these will be of particular interest to students. However, this is not to denigrate the other chapters, even those that deal with relatively familiar groups such as the Odenata and Lepidoptera manage to add some new slants and information. There is a lot of information made available here that would otherwise have been difficult or nearly impossible to track down, the chapters are well written and though he book has a strong theoretical basis, I think most arthropod ecologists will get as much joy as I have from reading it.
All in all an excellent and valuable addition to the literature.
Highly Recommended
Because we are socail animals sociality is one of the habits that fascinates and endears us when we see it in other animals. for many people it gives us a way of relating to the animals we are observing by making them more like us. For scientists it represents an opportunity to study the evolutionary constraints and pathways that have lead to, and maintain, sociality in animals. Nearly everything that has been published recently on sociality in arthropods has been on social insects or as part of a taxon text, i.e Foelix's "The Biology of Spiders". Furthermore the recently published "Cooperation in Animals" by Lee Alan Dugatkin looked almost exclusively at vertebrates, taking only a brief look at the eusocial Hymenoptera.
This book then fills a much needed empty space in the literature. comprised of 24 chapters and 551 pages it takes a comprehensive and exciting look at sociality in all its forms. The various chapters reach across the whole spectrum of the insect and arachnid world providing a rich diversity of topics that is both enlightening and a pleasure to read. The emphasis is on understanding the forces that generate/d the evolution of the sociality we now observe, in both its primitive and more advanced expression. The authors in a number of chapters have had the courage to step outside the stereotype centrepiece images of sociality and its origins and to present controversial and challenging ideas. It is not important, whether or not for instance ou accept the validity of the hypothesis that maternal activity in the hemiptera is an evolutionarily early, and difficult to sustain practice that has been mostly abandoned in favour of other methods of egg protection. What is important is that these ideas are coherently expressed in a book making them accessible to a far larger audience than the would encounter in a paper.
With chapters on a great range of groups, (see below) this work is both a fascinating read for anyone interested in arthropod ecology but also an excellent first resource for students and researchers all around the world. Both the authors and the editors are to be congratulated on the production on this wonderful book.
Contains the following chapters:- Introduction; 1. Are behavioural classifications blinders to natural variation?; 2. Life beneath silk walls: a review of the primitively social Embiidina; 3. Post-ovulation parental investment and parental care in cockroaches; 4. The spectrum of eusociality in termites; 5. Maternal care in the Hemiptera: ancestry, alternatives and current adaptive value; 6. Evolution of parental care in the giant water bugs (Heteroptera: Belostomatidae); 7. The evolution of sociality in aphids: a clone’s eye view; 8. Ecology and evolution of social behaviour among Australian gall thrips; 9. Interactions among males, females and offspring in bark and ambrosia beetles: the significance of living in holes for the evolution of social behaviourLawrence; 10. Biparental care and social evolution in burying beetles: lessons from the larder; 11. Subsocial behavior in Scarabaeiinae; 12. Evolution of social behavior in Passalidae (Coleoptera); 13. The evolution of social behaviour in the Augochlorine bees (Hymenoptera: Halicitidae) based on a phylogenetic analysis of the data; 14. Demography and sociality in halictine bees (Hymenoptera: Halictidae); 15.Behavioural environments of sweat bees (Halictinae) and variability in social organization; 16. Intrinsic and extrinsic factors associated with social evolution in allodapine bees; 17. Cooperative breeding in wasps and vertebrates: the role of ecological constraints; 18. Morphologically 'primitive' ants: comparative review of social characters, and the importance of queen-worker dimorphism; 19. Social conflict and cooperation among founding queens in ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae); 20. Social evolution in the lepidoptera: ecological context and communication in larval societies; 21. Sociality and kin selection in Acari; 22. Colonial web-building spiders: balancing the costs and benefits of group living; 23. Causes and consequences of cooperation and permanent-sociality in spiders Letitia Aviles; 24. Evolution and explanation of social systems; Index.
Highly Recommended
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