Success and Dominance in Ecosystems: The Case of the Social Insects

Introduction (0. Kinne) ............... IX
Edward 0. Wilson: Recipient of the Ecology Institute
Prize 1987 in Terrestrial Ecology. A Laudatio (Sir Richard Southwood) . . . . . . . . XVII
Preface (E. 0. Wilson) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XXI

I The Dominance of the Social Insects ......... 1

II The Social Insects: A Primer ............. 7

III The Meaning of Success and Dominance ....... 19
Are Social Insects Evolutionarily Successful? ..... 23
The Ecological Dominance of Social Insects ..... 27
How Closely are Success and Dominance Linked? . . 32

IV Why Are Social Insects Ecologically dominant? .... 37
Series-parallel Operations ............. 40
Worker Sacrifice ................. 42
Resource Inheritance ............... 44
Social Homeostasis and Flexibility ......... 47
Why Aren\'t All Insects Eusocial? .......... 51

V The Superorganism .......... 55
How the Superorganism Works .......... 58
Mass Communication .......... 59
Adaptive Demography .......... 62
Extreme Castes .......... 65
Penetration of New Adaptive Zones .......... 66

VI Social Optimization .......... 73
Caste Ratios in Leafcutter Ants .......... 74
Number of Queens in Honeypot Ants .......... 76
Multiple Nest Sites in Lasius Ants .......... 77
The Discretization of Labor Assignments .......... 77
Size Matching Within Bee Colonies .......... 79

VII Competition and Community Organization .......... 81
Competition and Species Hierarchies .......... 81
The Dominance-Impoverishment Rule .......... 84
Active Species Displacement .......... 85
Enemy Specification .......... 86
Competition in Other Social Insects .......... 88
The Impact on Other Organisms .......... 89

VIII Hawaii: A World Without Social Insects .......... 91

IX General Summary .......... 97

References .......... 99