Honeybee Ecology: A Study of Adaptation in Social Life

From the acclaimed author of Honeybee Democracy, a classic account of the ecological factors that shape the social lives of honeybees

For many years, research on honeybee social life dealt primarily with the physiological processes underlying the social system of the bee rather than the ecological factors that have shaped its societies. Thomas Seeley’s landmark book unites the two approaches, emphasizing ecological studies of honeybee social behavior while also offering fresh perspectives on honeybee behavior and communication. It covers a broad range of topics, from adaptiveness of worker sterility and the economics of nest construction to information-center foraging, individual versus colony level selection, sex ratio evolution, colonial thermoregulation, evolution of colony defense, and adaptive radiation in colony design. Honeybee Ecology presents honeybees as a model system for investigating advanced social life among insects from an evolutionary perspective.

Thomas D. Seeley is the Horace White Professor of Biology Emeritus at Cornell University. His books include Piping Hot Bees and Boisterous Buzz-Runners, The Lives of Bees, Following the Wild Bees, and Honeybee Democracy (all Princeton). He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.