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  • Living reference work
  • © 2020

Encyclopedia of Social Insects

  • An illustrated treatise on a very active and well-defined area of science
  • Unrivaled by anything presently available
  • As in any competent encyclopedia, prepared by recognized experts
  • In encyclopedia format, making individual topics readily accessible

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Table of contents (174 entries)

  1. Acropyga

    • John S. LaPolla
  2. African Honey Bees

    • Christian Walter Werner Pirk
  3. Aging in Social Insects

    • Jürgen Heinze, Judith Korb, Boris Kramer
  4. Allodapine Bees

    • Michael P. Schwarz, Simon M. Tierney
  5. Allomones in Social Insects

    • Abdullahi A. Yusuf
  6. Aneuretus simoni

    • R. K. Sriyani Dias
  7. Ant Gardens

    • Bruno Corbara
  8. Ant Mosaics

    • Nico Blüthgen
  9. Ant Plants, Macaranga

    • Heike Feldhaar, Brigitte Fiala
  10. Ant-Hemiptera Associations

    • Elizabeth G. Pringle
  11. Ant-Plants: Epiphytic Rubiaceae

    • Guillaume Chomicki
  12. Ants: Phylogeny and Classification

    • Marek L. Borowiec, Corrie S. Moreau, Christian Rabeling
  13. Apicotermitinae

    • Yves Roisin
  14. Apiculture

    • David R. Tarpy
  15. Army Ants

    • Daniel J. C. Kronauer
  16. Azteca

    • John T. Longino
  17. Bees

    • Michael S. Engel, Claus Rasmussen, Victor H. Gonzalez
  18. Beeswax

    • Ann Harman

About this book



A comprehensive, multi-author treatise on the social insects of the world, with some auxiliary attention to such adjacent topics as subsocial insects and social arachnids. The work is to serve as a very convenient, yet authoritative reference work on the biology and systematics of social insects of the world.  

This is a project of the International Union for the Study of Social Insects (IUSSI), the worldwide organizing body for the scientific study of social insects.  


Editors and Affiliations

  • Caura Village, Trinidad and Tobago

    Christopher K. Starr

About the editor

Christopher K. Starr was born in Canada in 1949, but has spent the bulk of his adult life in the tropics of Asia and the New World. He was introduced to insects one day in 1954 by his grandmother, who happened to ask "Christopher, would thee like to go bug collecting?" What they found that day so amazed him that it grew into a lifetime in entomology. As an undergraduate in 1972, he reached the conviction that social insects are the most interesting feature of the known universe, a view from which he has not wavered. His main area of expertise is social wasps, but has been his pleasure alongside these to contribute original findings to our knowledge of social bees, ants, termites and solitary wasps.  After living and working in various countries, he moved to Trinidad & Tobago in 1991, where he retired as Professor of Entomology at the University of the West Indies in 2014.  As a friend of biodiversity and an adversary of the cold, he has every intention of remaining in this neotropical continental island.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Encyclopedia of Social Insects

  • Editors: Christopher K. Starr

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90306-4

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life Sciences, Reference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-90306-4Due: 25 November 2019

  • Topics: Entomology, Invertebrates, Conservation Biology/Ecology, Animal Ecology

  • Industry Sectors: Biotechnology