The Biology of Hover Wasps

The Biology of Hover Wasps PDF Author: Stefano Turillazzi
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642326803
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 285

Get Book Here

Book Description
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.

The Biology of Hover Wasps

The Biology of Hover Wasps PDF Author: Stefano Turillazzi
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642326803
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 285

Get Book Here

Book Description
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.

Field Guide to the Flower Flies of Northeastern North America

Field Guide to the Flower Flies of Northeastern North America PDF Author: Jeffrey H. Skevington
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691189404
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 512

Get Book Here

Book Description
"Covers all 416 species of flower flies that occur north of Tennessee and east of the Dakotas, including the high Arctic and Greenland"--Page [4] of cover.

The Natural History of Hoverflies

The Natural History of Hoverflies PDF Author: Graham E. Rotheray
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780956469212
Category : Natural history
Languages : en
Pages : 334

Get Book Here

Book Description


A Field Guide to Insects in Australia

A Field Guide to Insects in Australia PDF Author: Paul Zborowski
Publisher: Reed New Holland
ISBN: 9781877069659
Category : Insects
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Get Book Here

Book Description
Whether you're an amateur insect enthusiast, a student or an entomologist, this updated and revised third edition of A Field Guide to Insects in Australia will help you to identify insects from all the major insect groups. With more photographs and up-to-date information, it will enable you to differentiate between a dragonfly and a damselfly or a cricket and a grasshopper. You'll find cockroaches, termites, praying mantids, beetles, cicadas, moths, butterflies, ants and bees. More than 300 colour photographs show the insects in their natural habitat and the line drawings clearly illustrate subtle differences where identification is tricky.

British Social Wasps

British Social Wasps PDF Author: Edward Latham Ormerod
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Bee culture
Languages : en
Pages : 364

Get Book Here

Book Description


The Social Biology of Wasps

The Social Biology of Wasps PDF Author: Kenneth G. Ross
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501718673
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 699

Get Book Here

Book Description
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.

The Evolution of Social Wasps

The Evolution of Social Wasps PDF Author: James H. Hunt
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190294647
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 280

Get Book Here

Book Description
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 Sand Wasps

The Sand Wasps PDF Author: Howard Ensign EVANS
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674036611
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 362

Get Book Here

Book Description
Howard Evans was a brilliant ethologist and systematist, describing over 900 species in over a dozen entomology and natural history books. Upon his death in 2002, he left behind an unfinished manuscript, intended as an update of his classic 1966 work, The Comparative Ethology and Evolution of the Sand Wasps. O'Neill, Evans's former student and coauthor, has completed and enlarged this work into a tribe-by-tribe, species-by-species review of Bembicinae studies from the last four decades.

Hoverflies

Hoverflies PDF Author: Francis S. Gilbert
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781907807596
Category : Syrphidae
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
This Naturalists' Handbook book covers the natural history, biology and identification of the hoverfly. It will enable anyone to identify the most common hoverflies of the British Isles, providing practical guidance for methods of identification, advice on techniques and approaches to research for those wishing to plan an investigation or seeking advice on how to carry it out. The text is accompanied by clear and detailed illustrations, and references, further reading and useful addresses are included. It is a comprehensive, user-friendly resource for students, professionals, or anyone with an interest in the natural history of the hoverfly. Hoverflies are attractive, conspicuous and lively insects often seen visiting flowers. Their larvae are colourful but usually well hidden, emerging at night at feed on aphids or greenfly. They play a significant part in the biological control of crop pests. This book introduces the natural history of hoverflies with a thumbnail sketch of 42 of the species most likely to be found. It describes the biology and behaviour of the larvae, with their wide range of different diets, and discusses the tiny wasps that may parasitise them. In the adults, particular attention is paid to courtship behaviour and egg-laying, as well as flower-feeding. Selected species can be matched against the colour pictures, and their identification confirmed by a short list of critical characters. This book is a digital reprint of ISBN 0-85546-255-8 (1993). Naturalists' Handbooks encourage and enable those interested in natural history to undertake field study, make accurate identifications and to make original contributions to research.

Hoverflies of Northwest Europe

Hoverflies of Northwest Europe PDF Author: Mark P. van Veen
Publisher: Knnv Pub
ISBN: 9789050111997
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 254

Get Book Here

Book Description
Updated edition with revisions to the text. Identifies thehoverflies of Northwest Europe and incorporates the knowledge thathas been published in many articles over past decades. The bookcovers 500 species - nearly two thirds of the known Europeansyrphid fauna. The main body of the book consists of dichotomouskeys to all the hoverfly species found in the region, richlyillustrated with drawings that show details as well as wholeflies.