Chapter 2 - SOCIAL BEHAVIOR AND MUTUAL COMMUNICATION

Abstract

Insects rank first in the entire animal kingdom with regard to the organization of social groups. The associations of a simple coordinated grouping are temporary, facultative, and open groups without any stable organization. However, the first coordinated activity, that is, the coordinated moving, is found in this type of association. The mating swarms of mosquitoes or mayflies are held together by reciprocal optical stimulation. The long-distance migrations of Odonata, Orthoptera, and Lepidoptera require a more complex coordination of the moving. The social aspect is strongly emphasized in the simultaneous start of a migration, the determination in and adherence to the common goal of the migratory route by all the swarm members. In the entire animal kingdom, the so-called social insects feature the highest degree of social organization and the tightest interindividual ties. Their societies may be characterized as (1) all the developmental stages (larvae, pupae, males, females, and auxiliary females) are members of the community, (2) the community is a facultatively permanent one; only the bumble-bee and vespid species of higher latitudes break up their communities at the onset of the cold season, and (3) all the activities concerned with the existence of the community are collective ones. The cooperation is optimal and has reached the stage of efficient division of labor.