Insect Societies

Abstract

The study of social insects is inherently a problem in population biology and Brian's short book is the first broad spectrum review which adopts thi philosophy. He discusses the literature on ants, termites, and social bees and wasps in 17 chapters: Numbers and Density, Reproduction, Brood Periodicity, Age Structure, Dynamics: Worker Turnover, Geometric Growth, Intrinsic Limits, Maturation, Dynamics: Queen Turnover, Structural Limitations, Food Supply, Intraspecific Competition, Interspecific Competition, Intergeneric Competition, Predators and Parasites, and Population Regulation. This book is designed as a review for research workers presenting recent literature not covered in previous reviews; of the 421 references, only 57 predate 1950. Termites appear to be particularly understudied; there is rarely more than one paragraph on termites in each chapter, and there is no reference to termites in the chapter on Interspecific Competition.