Ecology of Social Evolution

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xii

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2. The Evolution and Ecology of Cooperation – History and Concepts

   • Andy Gardner, Kevin R. Foster

   Pages 1-36

3. The Ecology of Altruism in a Clonal Insect

   • Nathan Pike, William A. Foster

   Pages 37-56

4. The Evolutionary Ecology of Eusociality in Australian Gall Thrips: a ‘Model Clades’ Approach

   • Thomas W. Chapman, Bernard J. Crespi, Scott P. Perry

   Pages 57-83

5. The Ecology and Evolution of Helping in Hover Wasps (Hymenoptera: Stenogastrinae)

   • Jeremy Field

   Pages 85-107

6. Why are so Many Bees but so Few Digger Wasps Social? The Effect of Provisioning Mode and Helper Efficiency on the Distribution of Sociality Among the Apoidea

   • Erhard Strohm, Jörgen Liebig

   Pages 109-127

7. Social Plasticity: Ecology, Genetics, and the Structure of Ant Societies

   • Jörgen Heinze

   Pages 129-150

8. The Ecology of Social Evolution in Termites

   • Judith Korb

   Pages 151-174

9. Kin-Recognition Mechanisms in Cooperative Breeding Systems: Ecological Causes and Behavioral Consequences of Variation

   • Jan Komdeur, David S. Richardson, Ben Hatchwell

   Pages 175-193

10. Social Ecology of Horses

    • Konstanze Krueger

    Pages 195-206

11. African Mole-Rats: Eusociality, Relatedness and Ecological Constraints

    • M. Justin O'Riain, Chris G. Faulkes

    Pages 207-223

12. Genetic and Ecological Determinants of Primate Social Systems

    • Peter M. Kappeler

    Pages 225-243

13. The Ecology of Social Life: A Synthesis

    • Jörgen Heinze, Judith Korb

    Pages 245-259

14. Back Matter

    Pages 261-266

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Research on the evolution of social behaviour has been dominated by genetic relatedness for a long time; however, both recent empirical studies and theoretical concepts give growing evidence for ecological factors acting as very prominent additional or alternative driving forces in social evolution. Now the time is ripe to investigate similarities and differences in the course of social evolution in different animals. This book brings together renowned researchers working on sociality in different animals. For the first time, they compile the evidence for the importance of ecological factors in the evolution of social life, ranging from invertebrate to vertebrate social systems, and evaluate its importance versus that of relatedness.

• Cooperation
• altruism, animals
• animal behaviour
• ecological constraints
• ecology
• entomology
• evolution
• kin selection

From the reviews:

"The ecology of social evolution … attempt to redress a perceived bias for genetic interpretations in the study of social evolution by focussing on the ecological side. … there are new and valuable insights in this book. Readers will find authoritative and up-to-date reviews on a wide range of taxa, from social insects both familiar and unfamiliar, to social vertebrates including cooperatively breeding birds, mole-rats and primates." (Andrew F.G. Bourke, Myrmecological News, Vol. 200 (11), August, 2008)

• Universität Regensburg, Germany

  Judith Korb, Jörgen Heinze

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