Honeybee Ecology: A Study of Adaptation in Social Life

Description:

From the acclaimed author of Honeybee Democracy, a classic account of the ecological factors that shape the social lives of honeybees. For many years, research on honeybee social life dealt primarily with the physiological processes underlying the social system of the bee rather than the ecological factors that have shaped its societies. Thomas Seeley's landmark book unites the two approaches, emphasizing ecological studies of honeybee social behaviour while also offering fresh perspectives on honeybee behaviour and communication. It covers a broad range of topics, from adaptiveness of worker sterility and the economics of nest construction to information-centre foraging, individual versus colony-level selection, sex ratio evolution, colonial thermoregulation, the evolution of colony defence, and adaptive radiation in colony design. This book presents honeybees as a model system for investigating advanced social life among insects from an evolutionary perspective.